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■ ■■'■■■■ j'i-h^Pi 



PRINCETON SKETCHES 

THE STORY OF NASSAU HALL 



BY 

GEORGE R. VVALLACE 

CLASS OK '91 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

ANDREW F. WEST, PH.D. 

GIGER PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY 



4, / 

>x^ — 

Xcp ILLUSTRATED 

6 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



IW 15 ! 893 



NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTV-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

^\t fmitlurboclur ^rcss 
1893 






P >kI^ 



1/ 



COPYRIGHT, l8g3 
BY 

GEORGE R. WALLACE 



Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by 

Ube Tknicherbocfter Ipress, IRcw JtJorft 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 




INTRODUCTION. 



The traveller from the West or South, hurry- 
ing on his way to New York, is very apt to set- 
tle down to two hours of dreariness, as his train 
runs across the flat plain of New Jersey ; yet, if 
he be an observant tourist, he will have occasion 
to notice, when half-way onward from Philadel- 
phia, a distant view of the ^vest. There, three 
miles away, on an elevated ridge, and backed by 
a range of blue hills, lies Princeton, embowered 
in its old elms, the many Iniildiugs of the 
university rising half buried in foliage, some 
of them silent witnesses of a glorious past, 
while more of them speak of the present and 
predict the more glorious future. 

If he be a graduate, his eye will search the 
sky line until, in the middle of his view, he sees 
the slender belfry spire of Nassau Hall, the his- 
toric centre of the Princeton campus. Perhaps 
the monotony of the Jersey plain through which 
he has been ridino; makes the sio:ht of this clas- 



iv INTRODUCTION. 



sic bill, graced with its green groves and shel- 
tering shades, all the more charming; but, 
whether this be so or not, no Princeton man 
travelling that way ever fails, on passing Prince- 
ton Junction, to glance with fondness toward 
what seems to him, more and more as his years 
roll on, a true oasis of rest and happiness in his 
life's itinerary. If his train stops at the junction 
he will probably try the three-mile journey 
and revisit the old place. He will notice that 
the branch road, with its formidable grades and 
breakneck curves, once planned, as college tra- 
dition says, by a distinguished professor — well, 
he will notice that these are " iidem qui semper 
fuerunt," the same as they ever were — to use the 
classic words of that old Latin prose book now 
dead and gone, in whick so many of our alumni 
were prepared for college. And as the puffing 
little engine toils up the last steep grade towards 
the Princeton station, though many a change 
will meet his eye which will gladden him as a 
lover of Princeton, and sadden him as he misses 
some cherished landmark, yet he will find many 
things still unaltered. If he be an alumnus of 
a generation back, there will be only a few pro- 
fessors of his old faculty to meet, and perhaps he 
is most likely to encounter first some old college 
servant with a half century's record, such as 



INTRODUCTION. 



Dennis, or Steve, or the indispensable and only 
James Johnson. 

On glancing around he will notice at first 
only the wonderful change that has come over 
the place and, as with a ^vave of an enchanter's 
wand, transformed the quiet old college into 
the vigorous and active university. He will 
see the old college green enlarged into a park 
of hundreds of aci'es, stretching out over the 
hill and down the slope, w^ith its twoscore beau- 
tiful buildings. He will learn of the growth 
of the faculty and will ascertain that it has 
increased in a ratio less only than the num- 
ber of the students. He will be astonished at 
the multiplication of new departments, branches 
of study, elective and optional courses, the 
museums, observatories, laboratories libraries, 
apparatus, the various athletic grounds, and the 
many club-houses, and other organizations of the 
students. All these will seem new and strano-e to 
him, with the subtle fascination of the old and the 
ever striking charm of the new beauty. But if 
he stays a day or two, most of the lineaments of 
the old college as it was to him take shape again 
and revive, and the campus around Nassau Hall 
will still be found, as of old, the centre of all the 
university life. 

Truly so and remarkably so in the beau- 



VI INTRODUCTION. 



tiful October evenings, as the leaves are begin- 
ning to turn and the processions of students 
singing the college songs move to and fro ; or 
better yet, in the still long evenings of May and 
June, just before the seniors leave and their sing- 
ing sounds from the steps of Old North, when 
all the historic memories of the place, all the old 
student life at Princeton, back to the dim remi- 
niscences of the Revolution and the colonial time 
seem to be evoked by the ever new magic of the 
old music. There under the trees planted in 
the time of Washington, the figures of the Revo- 
lution reappear to student imagination — Madi- 
son, Witherspoon, Ellsworth, Stockton, Freneau, 
Rush, " Light-horse Harry " Lee, the Bayards, 
Livingstons, Frelinghuysens, and all that com- 
pany of noble souls who used their swords to 
achieve American freedom, or their pens to sign 
the Declaration of Independence and frame the 
Constitution of the United States. 

But our prosaic muse is running away with 
us, and we are getting into the domain of Mr. 
Wallace's book. Suppose our traveller cannot 
stop at Princeton Junction. Suppose he is far 
away from Princeton. Then let him read this 
book, written newly by one who has lately 
passed out from under the Princeton elms. They 
too are the same as they ever were — but a little 



IN TR on UC TION. vn 

older, a little grander, a little more majestic. 
This book will take the reader in spirit to the 
old academic shades. There lie may recline on 
the mellow^ sward and hear the seniors singing, 
and re-create in his own imao^ination that little 
world of university life, now lost to his sight, 
but living as truly as ever in his heart and life. 

Andrew F. West. 



CONTENTS. 



I. — In Good Old Colony Days 
II. — The Revolution 
III. — The Halls .... 
IV. — ^Ante Bellum .... 
V. — Administration of James McCosh 
VI. — Princeton University 
VII. — Under the Princeton Elms . 
VIII. — The Princeton Idea 



29 

53 

72 

lOI 

128 
149 
179 



Know all Men by there Prefents, That I y^^^2^^^j^^, 

/ 

For and in Coniideration of of the Sum ot ^ ^f^ jltruynSp -^ -^^ 
'^ <^if- ^,&- '^ -y^ 'y^r^ ^^ Current Money of the Province of 
^V* eui^-^.^n^'/i^ ^ to me in Hand paid at and before the Enfealing 
and Delivery of thefe Prefents, by CT^-- »£^«-t^ 0^ ^a^^f^ *^/^/yt;) 
y-i^^J.*^ ^ /A^rriL-y-' ^^<L.tf7lr:rc^ ^ ^ ^^ 
•V- ^ -vrf-of- 'y^ '^ ^^ -T^"^ the Receipt whereof I do hereby 
acknowledge, and myfeh" to be therewith fully fatisfied, contented and 
^ald : Have Granted, Bargained, Sold, Releafed, and by thefe Prefents 
do fully, clearly and abf^Iutely grant, bargain, fell and releafe unto the 
faid J?i- ^ ^ii^iry^ J2ftt/inp A-^:*} A.*J^tV X'^'ff''-fH^^3^feA±^4^ 
«/^4t-yu> JvLo/hj ^/iy)*„j^ FsiUa/y- ^ ^^ of- «?i^'>^<-?^^^->^' 

To HAVE and to: HOLD the faid ^t^^ 0^ ^^ Qi^J^^c^ ^ ^ 

'^ -y- unto the faid: fjjZ ^^2^^ */i>u^i/i~ Al*> '^ n^ '^ 
Executors, Admin iftra tors and Affigns for ever. And I the faid 7^>^'^^ 
olljryf^-A^ Jv^^ for my Self, my Heirs, Executors and Adminiurators, 
do coveriantand agree to and with the above-named d^a.^en^\^\}>i^r'zj 

^bi!^ of^ 'rt' '^ "^ Executors, Adminiftrators and Affigns, to 
warrant and defend the Sale of the above-named fLa^yi^ 0L-a^ih^ 
jh-C'-^l"'-*^ [pSt-J' iv>^ againft all Perfons whatfoever. InWiinefi 
. whereof I have hereunto fet my Hartd and Seal this ffe^c-^ry,^ /^^ 
Day of ^<x-AJ^i~'>'*J' t.^ ^Kno^j Do/w. One Thoufand Seven Hundred 
and Fifty y'i.'Y\: ' ""^ 

Sealed and Delivered, in 
the Prefence of 





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Nassau Hall Frontispiece 

Bill of Sale of Negro xii 

Paper Executed in 1748 xvi 

President Jonathan Dickinson .... 3 
Fac-Simile of Advertisement of Lottery in 
"The Pennsylvania Journal," January 

16, 1750 

President Aaron Burr 

Fac-Similes of Lottery Tickets 

Marquand Chapel and Murray Hall 

Nassau Street in Front of the Campus 

Bill for Refreshments 

The Old President's House, now the Dean's 

Scheme of a Lottery for the Use of the Col 

LEGE OF New Jersey . 
The Bulletin Elm . . 
President Jonathan Edwards . 
Princeton University . . ; 
Graves of the Presidents . 
President John Witherspoon 
The West Campus, from University Place 

xiii 



5 

7 

9 

II 

15 
19 



26 
27 
30 
31 
35 
39 
41 



XIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Old Cannon . 

Offices of Administration 

Clio Hall 

Alexander Hall. 

Edwards Hall 

On the Campus — The Potter Woods 

Prospect — the President's House 

East College 

Museum of Historic Art 

West College 

President McCosh 

McCosH Walk 

The School of Science 

The Front Campus 

On the Campus — View from Prospect 

Bronze Statue of President McCosh in 

quand Chapel . 
The Dynamo House 
The Magnetic Observatory , 
The Halsted Observatory 
The Working Observatory 
Under the Elms . 
Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium 
The Brokaw Memorial Building and 

Tank . 
David Brown Hall 
Albert Dodd Hall 
Dickinson Hall . 



Mar- 



Swimming 



45 
51 
55 
(^Z 
67 

75 
79 
83 
93 
97 
103 
107 

113 
117 
123 

131 
135 
139 
143 
147 

151 
155 

159 
163 
169 
173 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The University Boat-House 

WiTHERSPOON Hall 

The Chemical Laboratory 

University Hall . 

Reunion Hall 

The Princeton Inn 



177 
181 

185 
189 

193 
197 



>\ 









.-Si/^fr '^// .,;.'- 










I Ins papei wis piohalil) executed in Se[iteiaber, 174S, at which time Gov. Helcher suc- 
ceeded in having Princeton fixed upon as a site for the College. Vid. Hageman's History of 
Princeton, vol. ii., page 243. 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 

Our weary travellers pass along, 
Cheered by the wiklwood's merry song, 
To where old Princeton's classic fane. 
With cupola and copper vane, 
And learning's holy honors crowned. 
Looks from her high hill all around, 
O'er such a wondrous fairy scene, 
Of waving woods and meadows green, 
That, sooth to say, a man might swear 
Was never seen so wondrous fair. 

TAe Lay of the Scottish Fiddle. 

In the ancient town of Newark, on the 9th of 
November, 1748, were celebrated the "Public 
Acts " of the first commencement of the College 
of New Jersey. Before the President's house 
six young men in black gowns, standing two and 
two, formed the head of a column. Behind 
them were the sixteen gentlemen named as 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



Trustees in the Royal Charter, while in the 
doorway stood the young President, Rev. Aaron 
Burr, in robe, bands, and wig, his gentle, intel- 
lectual face contrasting pleasantly with the 
shrewd and courtly expression of His Excellency 
Gov. Belcher, who, as President of the Board of 
Trustees, stood beside him, gorgeous in the court 
costume of the 18th century. At the order, 
•' Progredimini juvenes^'' the procession moves 
to the church, the candidates walking uncovered. 
There is "an eles-ant oration in the Latin 
tongue" by the President, there are learned 
disputations in Latin by the candidates, an 
address by the Orator Salutatorius, delivered in 
" a modest and decent manner," not to mention 
other imposing ceremonies, before the degrees 
are conferred, " all which being performed to 
the great satisfaction of all present. His Excel- 
lency, witli the Trustees and Scholars, returned 
to the house of the President in the order ob- 
served in the morning." 

About two years before, on the 2 2d of Octo- 
ber, 1746, the first charter of the college passed 
the Grreat Seal and was attested by John Ham- 
ilton, Esq., President of His Majesty's Council 
and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of 
New Jersey. Although the grants under this 
instrument do not seem to have been perfectly 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 



satisfactory, the Trustees proceeded at ouce to 
elect the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson President of 
the infant institution, and the first term bei>-an 




PRESIDENT JONATHAN DICKINSON. 



on the fourth week of May, 1747. We do not 
know how many students gathered at Elizabeth 
Town to enjoy the instructions of the President 
and his assistant, but the probability is that 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



there were about twenty. For some years, Mr. 
Dickinson had been conducting an unchartered 
school for young men, which accounts for the 
fact that there was a class ready to receive de- 
grees one year after the founding of the college. 
Like the more venerable universities of Europe, 
Princeton began with instructors instead of 
buildino-s, and the home of the President was 
the home of the institution. 

President Dickinson was a man of remarkable 
energy and ability. Besides performing his 
duties as President, he was minister of a large 
parish and a practising physician of some repute. 
No man was more influential than he in found- 
ing the college, and the prestige of his great 
name as a preacher and controversialist, both in 
this country and abroad, gave it an assured posi- 
tion from the first. He broke down, however, 
under the strain of his excessive labors, and died 
before the end of the first academic year. 

The Rev. Aaron Burr, a young man of thirty- 
one, but whose reputation was already made, 
was elected as his successor, and the college 
moved to his home at Newark. It was Mr. 
Burr's good fortune to begin his administration 
with the new charter, a much more liberal and 
satisfactory document, which had been procured 
through the interest of Governor Belcher. 



.Ala.,, ^w MufUUl IVVO YcaiS 11 lias liay^ .«A Jj^UlUIlS 

ot * bar Subjcriptiofjsare taken in by Willi hu Bradford, at 

laps Sc ^'S"^f ^'-^ Bible, /« Second-Street 



flioe & 

.'S 



Tiie Scheme of a LOTTERY, to. be let up in 

Philadelphia. 

50e beft for the Benefit of the New-leriey College 

10 conliit oi: booo Tickets at 30/ each, 2152 

een tea. of \\h ch to be fortunate, 'vlx.. 

.rd, h'umkr of Prizes, Falue of each. Total Value, 

<ngG.B. c ^ £ 

' of 500 is 500 

■tcridge- a of 25-0 are 500 

y^if^i- 9 of 100 are pco 



(all bag?. 20 of 



50 are 000 



2000 

47CO 

40- 



^'"all 40 of ao are 800 

wter to ,aco of 10 are 

; invoice. 1880 ot 2 10 s. aie 

's*cap& f/r/? ^r^w», 

Prizes, 2152. L^/? drawn, 60 
.ng.foal £/^Kjfej, 5848 

r»a'J" a»'l ^. loyoo 

8oo07>- I,,, <,♦,„., -«;;« •ilj ,.« [From vphich deduFt \ 

jf white ^^«^^^ ^^ ?°'- ^''<="' '^ V- ^^°°°liz|/. percent. is \ ^^°° 

§k lace. TpHE Drawing to begin on the 23^ Day of 

..ndmit- j^^ril nejtt, or fooner if fooner tull, of which timely Notice 

?c cotton will be given, that inch Ad vetiturers, as fhall choofe to be prefent, 
ty bind- may fee the Tickets put into tiie Boxes. 

We hope thoie wlio wifti well to the Education of the rifin^ Quv 
id, nuns neration, will encourage the Deiign j which is to furnifh the Youth 
thread. with all ufeful Learning, and at the fame Time to inltil into tlaeir 

Minds- the Principles ot Morality and Piety. 

»es, The following Perfons are appointed Managers of the Lottery, fy/s;;, 

oxes, William Bra7ifon, George Spafford, Samuel. Smith, Samuel Hazard, 

and rib* William Shi f pen, Jojeph Redman, ^ndreiv Read, and Willi am Patter- 

.{en in Petinj} Ivan! a, znd James Hude, James Nelfon; and Samuel Wuod- 

tcks and raff in the Jerfeys : Who are to give Bond, and be on Oath tor the 

faithful perfoimance of their Trulh 

Prizes not Demanded within fix Months after the Drawing to be 

'urfe hat- deemed as generoufly given to the Ufe of the faid College, and noc 

'h variety to be Demanded afterwards, but applyed accordingly. 

imings. The Tickets will begin to be fold, by the Managers at their refpec- 

fcifTars, tive Dwellings, on the Firft Day of January, and ilfo by Peter J/an 

fine and Brugh Livingfton, and William Peartree Smith, in !< I em-Tork __ 

oC reit fo 1^ i>old, very cheap' tor ready ivioiicy, or liiort Cicdit, by 

JOSEPH SIMS, 



kins. 



FAC-SIMILE OF ADVERTISEMENT OF LOTTERY IN "THE PENNSYLVANIA 
JOURNAL," JANUARY l6, I750. 

5 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. / 

Little is known of the daily life of the college 
during the next eight years. The students lived 
dispersed in private lodgings, and attended the 
academic exercises, which were generally con- 




PRESIDENT AARON lUTRR. 



ducted in the county court-house. The county 
court-house was in those days the centre for 
tlie business, politics, and gossip of the neighbor- 
hood, and the demoralizing influence upon the 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



students was felt to be so serious that only the 
" indefatigable industry and vigilance " of Pres- 
ident Burr was able to guard against " the diffi- 
culties and dangers of these circumstances." 

During the eight years' sojourn of the college 
in Newark, the Trustees were studiously en- 
gaged in devising means for the erection of suit- 
able college buildings, particularly as they 
desired to remove the students at the earliest 
opportunity to a place " more sequestred from 
the various temptations attending a promiscuous 
converse with the world, that theatre of folly 
and dissipation." Newark is better now, but it 
was a sad town one hundred and fifty years ago. 
A number of prominent gentlemen in the col- 
onies were appointed to canvass for subscriptions, 
lotteries were drawn, by permission of the pro- 
vincial governments, in Connecticut and New 
Jersey, and two ambassadors were sent to great 
Britain to solicit funds. The Independents, 
Presbyterians, and Baptists of the mother coun- 
try united with the clergy and laymen of the 
Established Church in raising funds, the Bishop 
of Durham being on record for a subscription 
of £5. Although the men most active in found- 
ing Princeton were Presbyterians, there were 
four Episcopalians and several Quakers on the 
first Board of Trustees, and the general response 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 



to appeals for funds at this time shows how 
thoroughly the college was recognized as a seat 
of learning without sectarian bias. 




ConneBicut Lottery. 

For the Benefit of the College of ticuj-Jerfey, 

1753- M\mh. ^^3S 

This ^'^^'^^^ entitles the PofTcfibr to fuch Prixe 
as may. be drawn againll its Number, (if 
iJemanded withiij. fix Months after the Prawing is 
Rnifhed) fubjedt'fo a Deduftion of i c per Cent.' 
W J r 



New-Jersey Cclkge LOTTCRV ^ 

^^ 'TpfllS TICKET intjtks the Pofieffor 'to fufh Prize as (hall 
^^/ X'/-^ j. be (ii awn "igjiwift it's Nnmbci-. provic'ted^f l|e demanded 
J^^S^rS ^'■'■'^'"" Six' Months alter _t'iic„t)xuvvhij;<ii finiuied, 'luNjecl to,'a 

#^ij:: ;.: ~ ..: . _ . 



'i^l-^iX DedMtUou of- Fifteen pA- Cent. /O .,. ^ ^ ^. 

mm "-' Mcdu^)j^^ 



FAC-SIMILES OF LOTTERY TICKETS. 

As early as 1750, the Trustees were able to 
make overtures to Prince Town and New Bruns- 
wick for a permanent location. The superior 
enterprise and public spirit of her citizens se- 
cured the prize for the former town, and on 



lO PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

September 27, 1752, the following entry was 
made in the minutes of the Board of Trustees: 

" Voted, That the college be fixed at Princetown, 
upon condition that the inhabitants of said Place secure 
to the Trustees those two hundred acres of wood-land, 
and that Ten Acres of cleared land which Mr. Sergeant 
viewed ; and also one thousand Pounds proc. money. 
The one half of which sum to be paid within two months 
after the foundation of the College is laid, and the other 
half within six months afterwards." 

Nearly two years were consumed in completing 
arrangements, and it was not until July 29, 1754, 
that " Joseph Morrow first set a man to dig the 
college cellar." 

For many years the college was the largest 
building in the colonies. 

" This edifice being nearly finished, and considered as 
sacred to liberty and revolutionary principles, was de- 
nominated Nassau Hall, from that great deliverer of 
Britain and assertor of protestant liberty, K. William 
the Hid, prince of Orange and Nassau. It will accom- 
modate 147 students, computing three to a chamber. 
These are 20 feet square, have two large closets, with a 
window in each for retirement. It has also an elegant 
hall of genteel workmanship, being a square of nearly 40 
feet with a neatly finished front gallery. Here is a small, 
though exceeding good organ, which was obtained by 
a voluntary subscription. Opposite to which, and of the 
same height, is erected a stage for the use of the students 
in their public exhibitions. It is also ornamented, on 
one side, with a portrait of his late majesty, at full length ; 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 1 3 



and, on the other, with a like picture (and above it the 
family-arms neatly carved and gilt) of his excellency Gov- 
ernor Belcher. The library, which is on the second floor, 
is a spacious room, furnished at present with about 1,200 
volumes, all of which have been the gifts of the patrons 
and friends of the institution, both in Europe and A?nerica. 
There is, on the lower story, a commodious dining hall, 
large enough to accommodate as many as the house will 
contain, together with a large kitchen, stewards' apart- 
ments, etc. The whole structure, which is of durable 
stone, having a neat cupola on its toi), makes a hand- 
some appearance ; and is esteemed to be the most con- 
veniently planned for the purpose of a college, of any in 
North America y 

In the fall of 175(>, President Burr moved 
with his flock of seventy students to the quaint 
old town on the King's Highway. A more 
favorable site could not have been chosen. 
Midway between the two great cities of the 
seaboard, " it stands on the first high land which 
separates the alluvial plain of South Jersey from 
the mountainous and hilly country of the north. 
There is a gentle depression between it and the 
mountain, and a gradual descent on either side 
of it, towards the streams that nearly encircle 
it." The town has spread itself comfortably 
over the broad tortoise-back hill, nearly encir- 
cling the campus, whose groves and towers 
occupy the highest part, and overlook the rich 
garden-lands of Jersey. Far to the south 



14 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

stretches an undulating champaign, whose 
varied expanse of field and forest is now dotted 
with farm-houses, or pierced by the ascending 
shaft of a white steeple, marking the site of 
some country village. Over thirty miles away, 
in the mellow haze of the horizon, the blue 
ridges of the Navesink Highlands trace the 
curving line of the coast. On the east, are the 
rolling foot-hills of the mountains, growing more 
rugged towards the north, while the western 
plain slopes gently to the Delaware River, 
Our founders are justified in regarding their 
new home as " not inferior in the salubrity of its 
air, to any village on the continent. " 

Unfortunately for this generation, no gossip- 
ing old traveller seems to have gone through 
New Jersey in 1756, and we do not know ex- 
actly how things looked to the new students. 
The chances are, however, that such a traveller 
would have seen a town very similar to that 
which met the eyes of the Marquis de Chastel- 
lux when he went through in 1780. The Mar- 
quis has left us an aged and time-stained volume 
of Travels in North America., in which he tells 
us that " beyond King's Town, the country be- 
gins to open and continues so to Prince Town. 
This town is situated on a sort of platform not 
much elevated, but which commands on all 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DA YS. 1 7 

sides ; it has only one street, formed by the 
high road ; there are about sixty or eighty 
houses, all tolerably well-built, but little atten- 
tion is paid to them, for that is immediately at- 
tracted by an immense building, which is visible 
at a considerable distance. It is a college built 
by the State of Jersey some years before the 
war. It is situated towards the middle of the 
town, on a distinct spot of ground, and the en- 
trance to it is ljy a large square court, surrounded 
by lofty palisades." This " square court " was 
that part of the campus in front of Old Nassau. 
As late as 1764 it was without a single tree, 
and the only harbinger of our glorious elms 
was a solitaiy bush in the yard before the 
President's house (now the Dean's). The two 
large sycamores standing before the Dean's 
house were planted by order of the Trustees in 
1705, to commemorate the resistance to the 
Stamp Act. 

In those days of classical models, college life 
was a little more stately than this irreverent age 
would be inclined to favor. It must have been 
a goodly sight to see the President, tutors, and 
students, all seated tosrether in the wide dining- 
hall, clad in the scholastic gown, and arranged 
according to rank and seniority. They lived 
very substantially on " almost all the variety of 



1 8 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

fish and flesh the country here affords, and 
sometimes pyes." ^ At dinner they drank small 
beer or cider, and at supper, milk or chocolate. 
Young gentlemen who chose to indulge in that 
luxury were occasionally permitted to make " a 
dish of tea " in their apartments. 

At five o'clock in the morning a large horn 
was blown in the entries, which, as a Freshman 
of the day sadly remarks, sounded like the last 
trumpet. This blast summoned the students to 
morning prayers. The students were not al- 
lowed to leave their rooms without permission, 
except for half an hour after morning prayers 
or recitation, an hour and a half after dinner, 
and from evening prayers until seven o'clock, 
on the penalty of four pence for each offence. 
Other college laws throw a curious light on the 
customs of the academic body in colonial days. 

" None of the students shall play at cards, or dice, or 
any other unlawful game, upon the penalty of a fine not 
exceeding five shillings for the first offense ; for the sec- 
ond, public admonition ; for the third, expulsion. No 
jumping, hollaring, or boisterous noise shall be suffered 
in the college at any time, or walking in the gallery in 
the time of study. No member of college shall wear his 
hat in the college at any time, or appear in the dining 

' To judge by the fac-simile of the bill of William Hicks, the an- 
nual Commencement dinners must have been somewhat more festive 
in character than has generally been supposed. 







19 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 21 

room at meal time, or in the hall at any public meeting, 
or knowingly in the presence of the superiority of the 
college, without an upper garment, and having shoes and 
stockings tight. Every scholar shall rise up and make 
obeisance when the President goes in or out of the hall, 
or enters the pulpit on days of religious worship. Every 
Freshman sent of an errand shall go and do it faithfully, 
and make quick return. Every scholar in college shall 
keep his hat off about ten rods to the President, and five 
to the Tutors." 

The aunals tell u.s that Oliver Ellsworth, of 
the class of 1766, was summoned before the 
college tribunal, charged with violating the last- 
named rule. Mr. Ellsworth made his defence 
after the following manner : " A hat is composed 
of two parts, the crown and the brim. Now 
this hat has no brim, consequently it is not a 
hat, and I can be guilty of no offense." The 
logicians of the Faculty found the syllogism 
correct, and the defendant was discharged, al- 
though it afterwards came out that the brim 
had been torn off with a view to makinsc a test 
case. The student who displayed this legal 
sagacity was afterwards appointed Chief -Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

The old inns and taverns were no small feat- 
ure of Princeton student life of the eighteenth 
century. Big, lumbering mail coaches, private 
carriages, heavy freight wagons, droves of cat- 



22 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

tie — the whole body of land communication be- 
tween Philadelphia and New York rolled 
through the little town. Those wonderful 
coaches put on in 1766, which made the journey 
between the two cities in the unprecedented 
time of two days, and won for themselves the 
name of " flying-machines," dashed by the 
campus daily. All this travel enriched a num- 
ber of inns whose names only remain. We 
hear of tavern signs such as " Hudibras," "Con- 
federation," " Gen. Washington," " The College," 
" Eed Lion," " City Hotel," " Mansion House," 
" Nassau Hotel," of which (excepting the last) 
the names only I'emain. We catch glimpses of 
students mingling with travellers in the wide 
inn-rooms, and indulging occasionally in heavy 
drinking and wild pranks, greatly to the scan- 
dal of " the superiority of the college." 

It was at the " Nassau Hotel," kept by John 
Joline, "as arrant a tavern-keeper as any in 
Christendom," that Jas. K. Paulding, assisted 
by Washington Irving, composed that spark- 
ling burlesque, published anonymously as The 
Lay of the Scottish Fiddle. In the third 
canto is a description of a convivium, which 
scarcely tallies with the rigid rules and solemn 
portraits that have come down to us from our 
academic ancestors. 



IN GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS. 



" Around the table's verge was spread 
Full many a wine-bewildered head, 
Of student learned, from Nassau Hall, 
Who, broken from scholastic thrall, 
Had sat him down to drink outright 
Through all the livelong, merry night, 
And sing as loud as he could bawl, 
Such is the custom of Nassau Hall. 
No Latin now or heathen Greek 
The Senior's double tongue can speak, 
y uniors, from famed Pierian fount, 
Had drank so deep they scarce could count 
The candles on the reeling table." 

while the " emulous Freshmen " were in a still 
worse condition. Such bouts, we may believe, 
were rare. But in the middle of the jollity, a 
travelling fiddler arrives, 

" And many lads and lasses, too, 
A buxom, witching, merry crew. 
As love's true gramayre ever knew, 
From country round have come, they say, 
To dance the livelong night away. 
Flew ope the door and in there came 
Full many a dancing, loving dame, 
With chintz short-gown and apron checked 
And head with long-eared lawn cap decked, 
And high-heeled shoes and buckles sheen. 
And bosom prank'd with boxwood green, 
With these, well paired, came many a lad 
With health and youthful spirits glad, 
To caper nimbly in Scotch reel, 
With toes turned in, and outward heel." 



26 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

We will leave this goodly company to dance 
the night away. Some hours later the " students 
learned " will return to Nassau Hall, slipping 
quietly down the long corridors and turning 
their keys with a delicate consideration for the 
repose of the tutor next door. Next morning 
at five o'clock, in gown, with shoes and stock- 
ings tight, they will be in their accustomed 
chapel seats, looking like veritable incarnations 
of the rigid rules we read about. Some years 
later, in shabby continentals, they will be fight- 
ing the great battles of American independence, 
or, under the dignity of full-bottomed wigs, 
advocating in state and national halls the great 
measures of freedom. For among these stu- 
dents, whose fresh, youthful faces peep out from 
behind the classic masks, are those whose names 
will be held sacred by succeeding generations 
— men destined to guide armies, frame laws, 
sign with their own hand the Declaration, and 
one who will frame the document which makes 
us a nation and sit with honor in the presi- 
dential chair. 



New-Jerfey, December 12, 1763. 

S C HE M E 

LOTTERY, 

For the US^ of 

The College oi New-Jerfey. 

THE Legiflature of the'^Colbny.of JVew-Jer/ey, : having been , pleafed ^to 
countenance thk^ rifing 5,e^ of Learning,- fo far as to pafs an Aft, enabling 
thg Tjnftees^ 'credl and draw q Lottery, for raifing any Sum, not exceeding 
"^.hseeThouf^fid Pdui^s ProjljPiatioti jVloney ; it is hoped, that the generous Defign 
inmaking;thk^'aw,-wi_n,^carri«ji into Execution, by all thoje who wifh welhto 
.th>In^kiitioji,^(»rvwhoai!e defirous of promoting ufeful Kfiowiildge in thefe «infant 
Countries, ^and preparing our own firout|i to fuftain tWv^ublid^ Offi^j ^fChyfcii 
fltid State. The following Schcm'e is calc^tlated for Xaj^mg^he S^;of two 'fih'oufand. 
Nine Hundred and Ninety-nine founds ..'Eighteet^'^hillings.- arf^iSix$>&n<*' Procla- 
mation Money: There are to be- j^^s-sj'Tickels' atTiiirty ghillingjii^ach',. whereof 
4488 will be fortuiiate, -fubjed to^s" per, Cerft. Dedudion,' viz. 



Number of 


Frizes. 




Value of each. 




Tolat Value. 


I 




of 


£' 


1000 


is 


■£. 1000 


I 




i)f 




7S° 


is 


75° 


I 




of 




500 


is 


500 


4 




of 




•200 


are 


800 


ID 




of 




100 


arc 


I'OOO 


20 
50 




of 
of 




50 
20 


are 
are 


idoo 
1000 


100 




of 




10 


are 


1000 


4299 




of 




3 


are. 


12897 


I 
I 


Firft drai 
Laft drai 


tvn 
kvn 




20 
32-10 


is- 
is 


20 
32-10 




Prizes. 




4488 




8845 


Blanks. 












13333 


.Tickets, 


at Thirty Shillings -each, 


is 


/. 19999-10 



So that it is evident there are not. Two Blanks to a Prize. The Drawing is to 
begin on the fourth Day of April next, at Najfau-Hall in Princeton, ' or as foon 
before as the Lottery, is filled; under the Infpeftion of three of the Truftees of the 
College. Robert Ogden, and William Peartree Smith, Efqrs, oi Elizabeth- 
row«; JoNATH-AN Sergeant, Efq; ox} Maidenhead,- zni'Mr. Ezekiel Forman, 
Merchant, oi- Princeton, are appointed Managers', and will be under Oath for tho 
faithful Execution of their Truft. 

Tickets may be . had of the feveral Managers; and oi Theunis Dey, Efq; in the County of 
^r-^'^i;.,, '• ^'"""'^ '^""''' ^' Morris-Tovim John Ogden, and Nehemiah Bald'win, Efqrs. and 
m.WilhamCamp^t Newark; Mr. 'J ofcph Woodruff, at Elizabeth-Town ; James Parker, -tfq; 
at IVoodbndge; John Johnftoni Efq; at Perth- Amboy; John Taylor, Efq; at Middletown; Mr. 
James Rgbmfon, at Freehold; John JVetherill,;Ei\, near Cranbury ; James Hude, Efq; at Mto- 
Brunjwick; Hendnck Flfier, Efq; near mmd-^roock; William Thomfon, Efq; and Mr. ' Peter 
i^chenck, at Miljlone; Richard Stockton, Efq; and Mr. Jonathan Baldwin, at Princc'on; Georcre 
Reading, F,((i, a.tAmwell; ,John Hart, Efq; at Hopewell; John Hickett, Efq; at the Union Iron- 
works; Samuel Tucker, Efq; ^t Trenton; thi^Hoa. John Ladd,'E(c^\iGwuceffr; Edward Keafbey, 
f,,?; ""l/f"^'. ^^'^'""" P^^tterfon, Efq; at ChriiUne-Bridge; Mr. David Steuart, at Reedy-JJland-; 
Klibu Hall, Eiq; at OSlarara, Cecil County; and Col. Peter Bayard, at Bobi:mia. 




THE BULLETIN ELM. 



11. 



THE REVOLUTION. 

Nor shall these angry tumults here subside, 
Nor murders cease, through all these provinces, 
'Till foreign crowns have vanished from our view 
And dazzle here no more, — no more presume 
To awe the spirit of fair Liberty ; 
Vengeance must cut the thread. 

Philip Freneau, Class of 1771. 

The college had not been settled in its new 
home a year, when it was saddened by the death 
of President Burr. He had all of that charm- 
ing personality and grace of manner which so 
distinguished his brilliant son. His tomb is in 
the Princeton graveyard, that " Westminster 
Abbey of America," as it has been called, and 
the moss-grown letters of the inscription bear 
eloquent testimony to the affectionate regard 
which he inspired : 

" O infandum sui Desiderium 

Gemit Ecclesia, plorat 

Acaderaia ; 

Ait Coelum plaudit, dum ille 

Ingreditur 

In Gaudiiim Domini." 

29 



30 



PRINCE TON SKE TCHES. 



For the next decade a singular fatality seemed 
to hang over the presidential office. Jonathan 
Edwards was called from Massachusetts, and 
took charge of the college in January, 1758. 
He had just crowned his reputation as a 
pulpit orator and thinker by publishing his 

treatise on The Free- 
dom of the Will, 
which gave him 
a place at once 
among the first 
philosophers of 
the world, and 
which still holds 
its position as 
the greatest met- 
aphysical work 
America has pro- 
duced. During 
the few months 
his term his 
course with the 
Senior class produced so profound an impression 
"that they spoke of it with the greatest satis- 
faction and wonder." He had just begun his 
administration under the happiest auspices, 
when an unsuccessful inoculation brought on a 
disease from which he died on the 22d of March. 




PRESIDENT JONATHAN EDWARDS. 



THE REVOLUTION. y^ 

He was in Princeton only long enougli to leave 
her the heritao;e of his name. 

In rapid succession the ilhistrious names of 
Samuel Davies and Samuel Finley* were writ- 

* The following quaint letter from President Finley to the Rev. 
Eliezer Wheelock, vho was the founder of Dartmouth College, is in 
the possession of the college : — 

Princeton, Dec. 13, 1761. 
Revd. & Dr. Br. 

I thank you for your Favour by Mr. Pomroy & your son, I 
am also under obligations for other like Favours, to which my con- 
stant Hurry, or want of Opportunity, prevented making any Return. 
Indeed, Hurry has been for years my constant plea ; & is so now. 

Wou'd have wrote you a line in ye Fall, but heard you was to 
be this way in October, which prevented me. I examined your Son, 
& tho' he was less prepared than ye Rest of his Class, yet consider- 
ing his age &: good sense, I concluded he wou'd make a pretty good 
Figure in it, after some time, shou'd God grant him Health to Study; 
& so admitted him. And I can honestly say, yt his being your Son 
had no small influence on me ; & you may assure yourself, dear Sir, 
yt your recommendations at any Time, will iveigh heavy wth. me. 

I have not had opportunity to consult ye Commissioners for In- 
dian Affairs ; but, if they are enabled to Support two at College I 
have not ye least Doubt of their Compliance with your Proposal. I 
speak dubiously because I have not yet got into ye State of affairs, & 
have none present of whom to enquire. I shall do all in my Power 
for your Son's welfare. 

As to ye State of our College Mr. Pomroy can inform you. May 
ye Lord Jesus be with you, & prosper your Undertakings ! If God 
help me not I surely Sink. 

I am 
[superscription.] Your affectionate Br. 

To The Revd. & very hble. Servt. 

Mr. Eliezer Wheelock Saml. Finley. 

at Lebannon 

In Connecticut. 
By favr. of ye 

Revd. Mr. Benjamin Pomroy. 



34 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

ten on the roll of our Presidents, until in 1768 
Dr. John Witherspoon, the great War Presi- 
dent, was called to the chair. 

It scarcely needed the presence and example 
of so distinguished a Son of Liberty to arouse 
the enthusiasm of the student body in the great 
conflict which was rapidly coming to a crisis. 
Newsletters and the little weekly papers of the 
neighboring cities were eagerly read. Scarcely 
a day but some traveller climbed down from a 
dusty coach with new stories of oppressive 
measures in Boston or patriotic resolutions 
passed by the Burgesses of Virginia. The little 
band of patriots in Nassau Hall were true to the 
inspiration of that name. We catch glimpses 
of excited discussions around the great log fires 
of the inns, and fiery orations in the newly 
organized debating societies. Occasionally more 
positive demonstrations were indulged in. 

In July, 1770, when the news came that the 
merchants of New York had broken through 
their resolutions not to import, there was great 
indignation at Princeton. A solemn procession 
was formed. The students, clad in black gowns, 
assembled in the centre of the college yard, and 
there, with fitting ceremonies, the bell tolling, 
they burned the letter which asked the mer- 
chants of Philadelphia to concur in the action of 



THE REVOLUTION. 37 

New York. All the students of this patriotic 
assembly, we are informed in a letter written 
by James Madison, were clad in American 
cloth. Among their number were a score of 
men who were to rise to distinguished positions 
in the State. That little group of about a 
hundred undergraduates sent four men to the 
Continental Congress, two to the Constitutional 
Convention, and eleven to the Federal Congress, 
It contained five distinguished Judges, four Gov- 
ernors of States, one Attorney-General, a Vice- 
President and a President of the United States. 

During this period Philip Freneau had begun 
to write those Poems of tlie Revolution, which 
made his name a household word through the 
years of that struggle. On the commencement 
stage of 1771, he joined with Hugh Bracken- 
ridge in a poetic dialogue on '^ The Rising 
Glory of America." No less than sixteen of 
the poems published in his own edition of 1795, 
were written while in college. Freneau was a 
classmate and close friend of Madison, and, 
down to the time of his death in 1832, was ac- 
customed to entertain his friends with stories 
of their college life, which, unfortunately, have 
not been preserved. 

In January, 1774, there was another patriotic 
outbreak. It was the time when Governor 



38 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, was making his 
unenviable reputation, and fighting the battles 
of tea with Boston. A raid was made on the 
steward's quarters, and his entire winter's store 
of tea carried off to the campus. " We there 
burned near a dozen pounds, tolled the bell, 
and made many spirited resolves." The effigy 
of Mr. Hutchinson, a canister about his neck, 
burned merrily with the tea. 

It would require a large number of volumes 
to record the deeds of the Princeton men during 
the war. Two of her graduates and thi'ee of 
her officers signed the immortal Declaration, 
nine of the fifteen college graduates in the Con- 
stitutional Convention owed allegiance to Nas- 
sau Hall, and even a catalogue of her sons who 
brought honor to her name in field and forum 
would become tedious. 

One staunch and rugged figure, however, 
stands out so prominently, and with so striking 
a personality, that he has identified himself in- 
separably with the history of his country and 
his college. Six feet tall and splendidly pro- 
portioned, he is said to have been second only 
to Washington in bearing and presence. His 
portrait in Nassau Hall shows a face with 
strongly marked features, a massive chin, a 
broad forehead, and an eye full of fire and 



THE REVOLUTION. 



39 



decision. John Witherspoon Joined in the first 
call for a Provincial Congress of New Jersey, 
and took an active part in prepai'iug her repub- 
lican constitution. In June, 1776, he was sent 
as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where 
he championed the then doubtful cause of inde- 




PRESIDENT JOHN WITHERSPOON. 

pendence. When a timid member suggested to 
him that the colonies were not yet ripe for that 
step, he answered, with characteristic Scotch 
vigor : " In my Judgment, sir, we are not only 
ripe, but rotting." 

When the Declaration was under debate, and 
the House was hesitating. Dr. Witherspoon 



40 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



arose, and, in the words of an eye-witness, 
" cast on the assembly a look of inexpressible 
interest and unconquerable determination, while 
on his visage the hue of age was lost in the 
flush of burning patriotism that fired his cheek." 
He closed his appeal with these words : 

" For my own part, of property I have some, of repu- 
tation more. That reputation is staked, that property is 
pledged, on the issue of this contest ; and although these 
gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would 
infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of 
the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause 
of my country." 

An incident which occurred a few weeks 
after the Declaration was published, shows how 
President Withers]3oon's services to liberty 
were recognized, both by friends and foes. The 
British troops of Staten Island arranged a little 
auto da fe. Effigies of the three Generals, 
Washington, Lee, and Putnam, were planted in 
a row, and before them the commanding fio;ure 
of the venerable Doctor, who was represented 
as reading an address to his compatriots. The 
soldiers crowded around to enjoy the o'igor 
mortis of the unfortunate gentlemen, and found 
great satisfaction in hurling imprecations at 
"the rebels," as they suffered the agonies of 
translation. 



THE REVOLUTION. 43 

The central position of Princeton, and the bold 
stand taken by the cluster of influential men re- 
siding here, drew upon the devoted village more 
than her share of attention from the enemy. 

For three years after the opening of hostili- 
ties no commencements were held. The few 
students who remained to pursue their studies 
were voted their degrees at meetings of the 
Board of Trustees, held as opportunity offered. 
The President, with other officers of the college, 
was engrossed in public services, and a large 
number of students were fighting in the ranks. 
At one time the number of undergraduates was 
reduced to ten. New Jersey was a battle-ground, 
and as the tide of war swept back and forth 
along the old highway, Nassau Hall afforded 
barrack-room, first for one army, and then the 
other. There was never a time, however, w^hen 
some members of the Faculty were not engaged 
in giving instruction to those who remained, 
and on each succeeding year a few degrees 
were conferred. 

On the first of January, 1777, a brigade of Hes- 
sian troops arrived at Princeton, and were quar- 
tered in the church and college. The recitation 
rooms in the basement were used to stable the 
horses, and the benches carried upstairs for 
firewood. 



44 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



Early on the morning of the third, the col- 
umn set out to join Cornwallis at Trenton. The 
American army, shut in by the Delaware, was 
to be crushed that day, and the war ended. 
The whole world knows how Washington, leav- 
ing his camp-fires burning to deceive the enemy, 
swept around his flank, and fell upon the bri- 
gade at Princeton. 

The first regiment of the Hessians had reached 
Stony Brook by the lower road, when they 
encountered in the gray dawn the troops of 
General Mercer, who had come to destroy the 
bridge, and hinder a pursuit by Cornwallis. A 
sharp contest, and the enemy were driven back 
through the town to the college. The main 
column of Washington's army found the rest of 
the brigade drawn up along the ridge just west 
of the present seminary grounds. Before an at- 
tack could be made they retreated to Nassau 
Hall, where doors were barricaded and win- 
dows broken out, in preparation for defence. 
Here, again, they made no serious stand, but on 
Washington's advance broke into open retreat. 
Some cannon shots fired by the Americans left 
marks on the walls, which can still be seen, and 
one ball, entering the chapel window, crashed 
through a full-length portrait of George II., re- 
moving his Majesty's head. Washington hur- 












THE OLD CANNON. 



THE REVOLUTION. 47 

ried on to Morristown, where he went into 
winter quarters, but the sick and wounded 
were left at Princeton, and Nassau Hall was 
used as a hospital for six or eight months. In 
the desperate fighting at Stony Brook Greneral 
Mercer fell, mortally wounded. The old Hale 
house is still standing on the battle-field, and 
the curious visitor can see the bullet marks on 
the woodwork, and the room in which General 
Mercer died. The battle left as a legacy two 
British cannon, both of which have had an 
eventful history, and one of w^hich has become 
the great totem of the college. 

When the enemy finally left New Jersey, the 
college was a complete wreck. Every accessible 
piece of wood, even to the flooring, had been 
used as firewood. All the ornaments, collec- 
tions, and scientific apparatus were entirely 
destroyed. The library was burned or carried 
off, and years afterward some of its volumes 
were found in North Carolina, where they had 
been left by soldiers in Cornwallis' army. The 
Trustees at once took steps to repair the ruins, 
but the funds had fallen, and so late as 1782 
only a few rooms in the basement and one 
or two above were fit to use. The rest of 
the building remained ruinous and tenantless. 
The Marquis de Chastellux, visiting Princeton 



48 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

about this time, found only forty students 
enrolled. 

The commencement of 1783 was a notable 
event in the history of the college, and heralded 
the advent of a brighter era. Congress w^as 
then holding its sessions in the library room of 
Nassau Hall, and as a courtesy to their Presi- 
dent, Elias Boudinot, who was a Trustee, and to 
the college which had placed its rooms at their 
disposal, the delegates, a number of whom were 
Princeton men, resolved to adjourn, and attend 
commencement in a body. An extended stage 
was erected in the church to accommodate the 
distinguished guests. On it were seated the 
Trustees and the graduating class, the whole of 
the Congress, the Ministers of France and 
Holland, and the Commander-in-Chief of the 
American Army. Ashbel Green, afterwards 
President of the college, was valedictorian. 
He closed his oration with an address to George 
Washington, which seems to have sustained 
Princeton's reputation for effective eloquence. 
The General, with characteristic modesty, 
blushed deeply, and, meeting the orator next day, 
congratulated him in such flattering terms that 
the valedictorian was put to the blush himself. 

At this time General Washington begged the 
honor of presenting the college with fifty 



THE REVOLUTION. 49 

guineas. The Trustees accepted the gift, and 
voted to expend it in a portrait of the General, 
to be ^minted by Peale, of Philadelphia. The 
picture is full length, and represents the battle 
of Pi'inceton in the background. It still hangs 
in the room where Congress met, adorning the 
frame which was occupied by George II., before 
that gentleman, in the excitement of the mo- 
ment, lost his head at the battle of Princeton. 

The closing years of Dr. Witherspoon's ad- 
ministration were devoted to those prosaic 
labors which repair the ravages of war. The 
minutes of the Board of Trustees are full of 
orders for restoring the buildings and schemes 
for filling the empty treasury. The venerable 
President retired to Tusculum, his country- 
place, about a mile from the college, and found 
a partial relief from ceaseless activity in enjoy- 
ing to some extent, to use his own phrase, a life 
of otium cum dignitate. With advancing age, 
his eyes paid the penalty for excessive labors, 
and the last days of the old patriot were passed 
in blindness, a trial which he endured with 
Miltonic heroism. 

No place in America is more charged with 
memories of the Revolution than Princeton. 
The houses which the heroes of that struggle 
honored by their presence are still pointed out. 



50 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Every entering student must go over the battle- 
field and see just where the war for American 
independence was decided. The mossy stones 
of the ancient buryiug-ground bear names made 
familiar by the great struggle. The old cannons 
speak of the days when they knew the smell of 
powder, and Nassau Hall, second only in the 
wealth of its associations to Independence Hall, 
seems to look out from every antique window 
with a consciousness of its dignity and service 
in a former day. It is not strange that with 
such an atmosphere and such traditions, Prince- 
ton men have learned to consider the claims of 
their country, and have for a century and a half 
distinguished themselves in her service. 



III. 



THE HALLS. 

The young patriots of Princeton found it 
impossible to live without a forum. The col- 
lege had from the first given particular atten- 
tion to training for public speaking. As early 
as 1750, a Freshman writes that they were 
required to '' dispute once every week after the 
syllogistic manner," and shortly after we find 
the Seniors delivering monthly orations. The 
short administration of President Davies materi- 
ally strengthened and confirmed this tendency. 
Himself a finished orator, and the most eloquent 
preacher of his day in America, he communi- 
cated to the students much of his own enthusiasm 
for the ars avtiura. It was at the commence- 
ment of 1760, a year after President Davies' 
inauguration, that " Mr. Benjamin Rush arose, 
and in a very sprightly and entertaining Man- 
ner delivered an ingenious Harangue in Praise 
of Oratory. Then followed a Forensick Dis- 
pute in English, in which it was held that 'The 

53 



54 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Elegance of an Oration much consists in the 
words being Consonant to the Sense.' " ^' The 
elegant, pathetic valedictory oration," which 
concluded the exercises, adds its testimony to. 
the fact that the art of speaking was at that 
time very generally and successfully cultivated. 
It was among such a body of orators, fired by 
the burning questions of the time, that Prince- 
ton's venerable halls had their birth. These 
organizations were first known as the Plain 
Dealing and the Well Meaning Societies. Un- 
fortunately, the records of the early societies 
have perished, and the exact dates and circum- 
stances of their origin cannot be positively 
determined. Dr. Giger, in his History of the 
Oliosopliic Society, proves conclusively that the 
Well Meaning Society was in existence in 1765, 
and presents evidence of its foundation in that 
year by William Patterson and others. Dr. 
Cameron, the historian of the American Whig 
Society, says of the Plain Dealing Club : " We 
are satisfied that it was in existence in 1763 
and was founded at an earlier date, probably in 
1760." Whatever the birthdays of these clubs' 
may have been, there is no doubt that for some 
years they flourished side by side, and devoted 
themselves mainly to the discussion of political 
questions. The rivalry soon became so intense, 



THE HALLS. 57 



however, that their discussions assumed a de- 
cidedly local character. The battles of Fred- 
erick the Great, and the right of Parliament to 
tax the colonies, were alike forgotten in a 
" paper war," of which only the distant echoes 
have reached us. Fierce satires and innumer- 
able lampoons were exchanged by the combat- 
ants, to the great edification of the college at 
large. We cannot find just what the casus belli 
was, and indeed one of the spectators of the 
strife, writing under the name of " Censor," 
assures us that after conversing with persons in 
as well as out of the societies, he was utterly 
unable to learn the cause of all this " clatter of 
violence." 

The Faculty finally decided that the only way 
to restore peace was to kill the societies, and 
consequently an edict was issued some time in 
the year 1768, closing their doors. The only 
relic of their existence which has survived the 
lapse of time is a quaint old diploma, issued by 
the Plain Dealing Club in 1766. 

" OMNIBUS ET SINGULIS 

" Has literas lecturis, notum sit, quod Josephus Has- 
BROUCK, A. B., perdigne se gessit dum inter nos versatus 
fuit, et praeterea quamdiu se ita gesserit, omnia ejusdem 
privilegia jure sibi vindicet. Cujus sigillum commune 



58 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Plain Dealing Club, nominaque nostra subscripta 
Testimonium sint." 

[seal.] [signatures.] 

"Datum Plain Dealing Hall in Aula Nassovica 
quarto calendas Octobris, Anno Aerae Christi millesimo 
septingentesimo et sexagesimo sexto." 

For about a year there were no societies, but 
after the sinolie of tlie battle had cleared away 
and the passion of the " paper war " was in a 
measure forgotten, they were permitted to 
revive again under different names. On June 
24, 1769, James Madison, with some of the 
members of the Plain Dealing Club and some 
other students, formed the American Whig 
Society. On the eighth of June, 1770, seventeen 
under-graduates met and reorganized the Well 
Meaning Club under the name of the Clio- 
sophic Society. 

For fifty years, these dates of 1769 and 1770, 
respectively, appeared on the diplomas and 
medals of the reorganized societies as the years 
of institution. In 1820, however, the Clio- 
sophic Society decided to assume tlie date of 
the foundation of the parent club, and since 
that time has written Funditur 1765. The 
Whigs have never seen fit to follow this exam- 
ple, partly because it is impossible to determine 



THE HALLS. 59 



the exact year in whicli the Plain Dealing Club 
was founded, and partly because they are con- 
tent to point to the reorganizers of 1769 as their 
charter members. Both societies are fortunate 
in the illustrious coterie of men whose names 
head their rolls. 

The rechristened societies were I'eceived into 
the favor of the Faculty, and assigned rooms on 
the fourth (now the third) floor of the college. 
Shortly after, the " paper war " broke out again, 
though in a milder form. Lampoons were read 
before the college in the Prayer Hall, or posted 
up on the doors. Some idea of these produc- 
tions may be formed from the following speci- 
men, written by Philip Freneau, the poet of the 
Revolution, in honor of an unfortunate member 
of the Cliosophic Society. 

THE DISTREST ORATOR. 

" Occasioned by R. A 's memory failing him in 

the midst of a public discourse he had got by rote." 

Six weeks and more he taxed his brain, 
And wrote petitions to the Muses — 
Poor Archibald ! 't was all in vain, 

For what they lent your memory loses. 
Now hear the culprit's self confess 
In strain of woe, his sad distress : 



6o PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



" I went upon the public stage, 

I flounced and floundered in a rage, 

I gabbled like a goose ; 
I talked of custom, fame and fashion, 
Of moral evil and coinpassion ; 
And pray what more ? 

" My words were few, I must confess, 
And very silly my address — 

A melancholy tale ! 
In short, I knew not what to say, 
I squinted this and the other way, 
Like Lucifer. 

" ' Alack-a-day ! my friends,' quoth I, 
' I guess you '11 get no more from me — 
In troth I have forgot it ! ' 

! my oration ! thou art fled. 
And not a trace within my head 

Remains to me. 

" What could be done ? I gaped once more, 
And set the audience in a roar ; 
They laughed me out of face. 

1 turned my eyes from north to south, 
I clapped my fingers in my mouth. 

And down I came ! " 

Many a modern Clio and Whig wLo reads 
these lines will smile as he recalls his own 
maiden efforts, and reflect that times have not 
changed so much after all. 



THE HALLS. 6 1 



These mimic battles were soon obscured 
under the shadow of a more portentous war- 
cloud. On the 29th of November, 177G, tidings 
reached the college of the approach of the 
enemy. 

" Our worthy President, deeply affected by the solemn 
scene, entered the hall where the students were collected, 
and, in a very affecting manner, informed us of the im- 
probability of continuing there longer in peace ; and after 
giving us several suitable instructions and much good ad- 
vice, very affectionately bade us farewell. Solemnity and 
distress appeared in almost every countenance. Several 
students that had come five or six hundred miles, and 
just got settled in college, were now obliged, under every 
disadvantage, to return with their effects, or leave them 
behind, which several, through the impossibility of getting 
a carriage at so confused a time, were obliged to do, and 
lost their all." 

In the general confusion, the halls did not 
escape. Although something in the way of 
college instruction was en evidence throughout 
the war, and degrees were given to a few stu- 
dents every year, the halls were entirely discon- 
tinued, and when peace was finally restored, 
the few hall men who remained in connection 
with the college returned to find those sacred 
chambers which had guarded their mysteries in 
sad and utter ruin. 



62 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Clio was the first to i^evive. Her old room 
Avas repaired, and on July 4, 1781, the first 
meeting was held and the work of the society 
resumed. The Revolution almost destroyed the 
Whig Society. There were but two Whigs in 
the class of 1781, and in 1782 but one member 
of the hall in college. In the spring of that 
year, however, the society was revived, and met 
in the college library until their room was re- 
paired. 

On the 4th of July, 1783, at the celebration 
of the national jubilee, the halls for the first 
time elected an orator to represent them before 
a public audience. The orators of the day spoke 
before Congress, which was then sitting at 
Princeton, and afterwards dined with its Presi- 
dent, and other invited guests, at Morven, the 
old Stockton homestead. From this time down 
until 1840, the halls united in selecting a man 
to read the Declaration of Independence on each 
returning Liberty Day. The custom of appoint- 
ing four orators from each hall to represent it 
on the evening before commencement, originated 
some time between 1783 and 1792. Until 1865, 
these orators were elected by vote of their I'e- 
spective halls. Old graduates tell of the notable 
canvasses and elaborate intrigues by which 
oratorical aspirants sought to gain the coveted 



THE HALLS. 65 



honor. To remedy the evils growing out of this 
method, in 1864 it was decided to choose the 
orators in a contest before Judges elected from 
the graduate members of hall. This plan con- 
tinues to give complete satisfaction. Shortly 
after this change, a further stimulus was given 
by offering four medals to be contested for by 
the speakers, and the Maclean Prize of $100 to 
be awarded for the best written oration. In 
1876 Mr. Charles R. Lynde presented to the 
college the sum of $5,000, the interest of which 
is divided into three prizes, to be competed for 
annually by three senior debaters chosen from 
each hall. There are, of course, a number of 
other prizes offered by the college for excellence 
in writing, speaking, poetry, and debate ; but 
although hall emulation extends to the contests 
for them, the prizes themselves are offered to 
the college at large. Each hall has also an 
elaborate " prize system," by which it seeks to 
stimulate its own members to their best work. 

The fire of 1802 brought another heavy dis- 
aster upon the societies. Their rooms were Just 
under the belfry where the conflagration broke 
out, and their property, including many valu- 
able records, was almost completely destroyed. 
Old Nassau Hall seems to be rather indifferent 
to fire, though, and it was only a short time 



66 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

before the gutted rooms were repaired, and f ur- 
nished with an increased splendor. We have 
an account of the appearance of Clio in 1805, 
as it came from the hands of the renovators. 

" There were four raised platforms, one on each side. 
On the north side were the chairs and desks of the prin- 
cipal officers, upholstered with red damask. Settees 
were placed against the walls, and chairs formed the 
other seats. The floor was covered with an expensive 
carpet. The window curtains were of white dimity and 
red damask. A chandelier was suspended by iron chains 
from the centre of the curved ceiling, and lustres hung 
around the walls, with glass lamps in the sockets. The 
walls were covered with velvet paper of a beautiful 
pattern. The room in summer was unpleasantly hot, 
the ventilation being very imperfect, and when the mem- 
bership increased it became almost intolerable. ... To 
crown all, the roof leaked badly." 

The quarters of Whig, across the hall, doubt- 
less shared with those of Clio both the elegance 
and the discomforts of this description. 

1838 is writ large in the histories of the halls. 
In that year they moved into those beautiful 
Greek temples which live in the memories of 
the alumni of more than fifty years. They 
were in the Ionic style. The columns of the 
hexastyle porticos are copied from those of a 
temple on the Ilissus, near the fountain of 
Callirhoe in Athens. The temple of Dionysus, 



THE HALLS. 69 



in the Ionian city of Teos, furnished a model 
for the buildings in other respects. Elegantly 
furnished and equipped with good libraries, 
these halls formed in many respects the centre 
of college life. In them, generations of men 
have passed through the metamorphosis from 
stammering and blushing freshmen to suave and 
eloquent seniors, and then gone forth to honor 
their halls in the pulpit and at the bar. Thou- 
sands of alumni cherish in the tenderest corner 
of their hearts, memories of long hours spent 
in the recesses of the old libraries, of life-long 
friendships formed within those mysterious 
doors, and of exciting crises on the floors, when 
the gray-haired ministers and learned judges of 
to-day were compassing heaven and earth to 
carry a motion of adjournment or bending all 
their energies to entangle their President in the 
meshes of parliamentary law. 

The old halls have gone. They had become 
inadequate to the growing needs of the college, 
and in 1889 the work of demolition was begun. 
In their places, stand two splendid temples of 
white marble. The pure Greek of the old 
buildings has been retained, and the double 
fagade on the southern side of the quadrangle 
looks like a glimpse of the Acropolis. Within 
these buildings are commodious libraries, read- 



70 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

ing-rooms, club rooms, and in each a spacious 
senate-chamber, where proper resolutions con- 
cerning the great questions of literature and 
politics will continue to be argued and adopted. 

In their origin, the halls of Princeton have 
much in common with similar organizations 
formed in the provincial colleges. Harvard, 
Yale, William and Mary, and Columbia, all 
had literary clubs formed on practically the 
same basis. The unique thing about the Prince- 
ton halls is that they seem to have absorbed 
the good old Calvinistic doctrine of " final per- 
severance." Of the many societies which were 
contemporaries of Clio and Whig in their 
younger days, not one remains. They have 
either disappeared altogether, or have been 
absorbed in the Grreek-letter fraternity move- 
ment and entirely lost their original character. 
Both of the Princeton halls have had repeated 
requests to establish chapter houses in other 
colleges, but they have uniformly refused to 
join the fraternity movement. 

The result has been most happy for Princeton. 
Instead of a number of small competing frater- 
nities, she has two noble and venerable 
institutions, large enough to engage in heroic 
competitions for literary honors and dignified 
enough to stay out of petty rivalries in college 



THE HALLS. 7 1 



affairs whicli do not directly affect their in- 
terests. 

At each returning comnieucement, the fathers 
gather to revive old memories, and hear what 
the undergraduates have been doing in the pre- 
ceding year. The mysteries which are concealed 
behind those marble columns and massive doors 
are too awful to be divulged, but it is said that 
inquisitive persons who linger near the portals, 
occasionally hear rumblings of thunder like ^ 
unto the ten-pin games of Heiurich Hudson, J^^WXt^uoK 
and the muffled sounds of voices and applaud- " 

ing hands. It is inferred from these phenomena ^ '^'^aa a^ 
that there is within the halls some magic iuilu- o^ W/(aA*«< 
ence which warms the blood and renews the 
youth of the gray-haired fathei's, and that the 
younger members, catching the spirit of their 
sires, come forth with renewed enthusiasm for 
their halls, a veneration for their past, and an 
increased confidence in their future. 



IV. 



ANTE BELLUM. 

DuRiisTG the last few years of Dr. Wither- 
spoon's presidency, the burden of administra- 
tion had been carried by the Vice-President, 
Samnel Stanhope Smith ; and on the death of 
the old War President in 1794, there was no 
question as to who should be his successor. 

The history of Princeton can be rudely 
divided into three epochs. The first, extending 
from its foundation in 1746 to the close of the 
century, was marked by a remarkable cluster 
of brilliant men who were identified with the 
college either as ofiacers or patrons. In the 
stirring events of that heroic age, these men 
rose to an eminence which gave their college a 
singular prestige throughout all the colonies, 
and even beyond the sea. Her reputation re- 
ceived added lustre from the young alumni, an 
unusually large proportion of whom became 
men of distinction and wide influence. George 
Washington, writing to his adopted son, a 

72 



ANTE BELLUM. 73 



student in Princeton at the time, after referring 
to some change in the course of study which 
had been recommended by one of the tutors, 

says : 

" Mr. Lewis was educated at Yale college, and, as is 
natural, may be prejudiced in favor of the mode pursued 
at that seminary ; but no college has turned out better 
scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau. Nor 
is there any one whose president is thought more capable 
to direct a proper system of education than Dr. Smith." 

Similar expressions in the letters of other 
eminent men show how closely Princeton, as an 
institution, was identified with the life of the 
time. 

With the dawning of the nineteenth century 
began an epoch of less dramatic if not less sub- 
stantial influence. The long list of senators, 
governors, cabinet officers, judges, and other 
prominent men in Dr. Maclean's history, who 
held diplomas from Princeton, shows that her 
influence had not abated. At the same time 
they were not so distinctively known as Prince- 
ton men, and the college itself did not stand out 
so prominently before the country. 

It must be confessed, too, that at the begin- 
ning of the century an unfortunate policy in 
the discipline of the college had the effect of 
increasing the disorders it was intended to sup- 



74 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

press. A spirit of opposition to authority 
became prevalent, which developed at times 
into open warfare. Organized rebellion and 
wild pranks were punished with a Draconian 
rigor, displaying more sternness than tact ; and 
the natural result was, not only to lessen the 
enthusiasm of alumni, but also to perpetuate a 
tendency to outbreaks, the reports of which 
injured the reputation of the college. The 
responsibility for this injudicious course seems 
to have rested in some degree with the Trustees. 
They interfered to an unprecedented extent 
with the details of administration, and were 
naturally less competent to deal with difficult 
questions than the President and Faculty, who 
were on the ground, and were thoroughly ac- 
quainted with all the aspects of every case 
which arose. 

The temptation to such outbreaks was greater 
then than it is now. There was very little 
athletic work of any kind, and efforts in that 
direction were regarded with scant favor by a 
Faculty which had not learned the value of 
these exercises in teaching self-control and en- 
couraging a manly spirit. As a result, the 
irrepressible vitality of healthy young men 
found outlet in many a cunningly devised and 
daringly executed plot. A quaint entry upon 



ANTE BELLUM. yj 

the minutes of the Faculty, in the closing years 
of Dr. Witherspoon's administration, shows the 
attitude of that body toward athletics, and 
records the first appearance of base-ball at 
Princeton. 

" Faculty met Nov. 26, 1787. — It appearing that a play 
at present much practiced by the small boys among the 
students and by the grammar scholars with balls and 
sticks, in the back campus of the college, is in itself low 
and unbecoming gentlemen and students ; and inasmuch 
as it is attended with great danger to the health by sudden 
and alternate heats and colds ; as it tends by accidents 
almost unavoidable in that play to disfiguring and maim- 
ing those who are engaged in it, for whose health and 
safety as well as improvement in study as far as depends 
on our exertion, we are accountable to their parents and 
liable to be severely blamed by them ; and inasmuch as 
there are many amusements both more honorable and 
more useful in which they are indulged, — Therefore the 
Faculty think it incumbent on them to prohibit the 
students and grammar scholars from using the play 
aforesaid." 

College government, too, was a much more 
difficult thing then. It is hard for the under- 
graduate of to-day, when the tone of the college 
is so distinctively Christian, to realize the moral 
atmosphere of seventy-five years ago. French 
philosophy was still fashionable, and French 
skepticism was carefully cherished by young 



78 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

men as the badge of polite learning and freedom. 
The gay and reckless spirit which always 
accompanied this philosophy of life was not 
wanting. It was necessary to ride hard, drink 
deep, and fear nothing. At one time there were 
only twelve students who acknowledged their 
adherence to the old faith, and even so late as 
1841, when the venerable Dr. Theodore Cuyler 
was an undergraduate, the little band of Chris- 
tians were dubbed the religiosi, and met in a 
little room in the top of Old North. 

When we remember, too, that good prepara- 
tory schools were rare then, and the men in 
college were, as a rule, much older than they 
are now, it will not seem strange that the 
enforcement of proper regulations was no easy 
task. 

After the '20's, the spirit of disorder gradually 
subsided, and during the peaceful reigns of 
Presidents Carnahan and Maclean, the college 
gathered strength for the brilliant university 
era which was heralded by the inauguration of 
Dr. McCosh, in 1868. 

Washington Irving's published works give 
us a glimpse of the student life under Dr. 
Smith, as it appeared to the genial writer for 
Salmagundi. Under date of February 24, 1807, 
appears " Memorandums for a Tour to be Entitled 



ANTE BELLUM. 



* The Stranger in New Jersey ; or, Cockney 
Travelling.' " Chapter IV is outlined as follows : 

" Princeton — college — professors wear boots ! — students 
famous for their love of a jest — set the college on fire and 
burned out the professors ; an excellent joke, but not 
worth repeating — Mem. American students very much 
addicted to burning down colleges — reminds me of a good 
story, nothing at all to the purpose — two societies in the 
college — good notion — encourages emulation, and makes 
little boys fight ; — students famous for their eating and 
erudition — saw two at the tavern, who had just got their 
allowance of spending money — laid it all out in a supper, 

got fuddled, and d d the professors for nincoms, n. b. 

Southern gentlemen . . . commencement — students 
give a ball and supper — company from New York, Phila- 
delphia and Albany — great contest which spoke the best 
English . . . students can't dance — always set off 
with the wrong foot foremost ..." 

Washington Irving never had any experience 
with the disciplinary side of college life, but 
lie seems to have made up for it by a close and 
conscientious study of its convivial aspects, and 
he and his jovial confreres were well-known and 
welcome guests at the ancient Princeton inns. 

The most memorable event in the annals of 
President Smith's administration was the de- 
struction of Nassau Hall by fire, on the 6th of 
March, 1802. The building was completely gut- 
ted, the library and most of the philosophical 
ap[)aratus destroyed, and nothing was left of 

6 



82 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

the college save the bare, brown walls. These 
old walls, built of a ferrous sandstone, have 
survived the sack of the edifice by the British, 
and two subsequent conflagrations. Erected 
with provincial honesty, and of a material alike 
indifferent to fire and weather, they are as 
staunch and clean to-day as when the rural 
Jerseyman came, with open-mouthed wonder, 
to the dedication of the largest building in 
America. 

A thorough investigation was made, but with- 
out finding any proof of incendiarism. The 
Trustees issued an address to the "inhabitants 
of the United States," asking for aid ; the 
President returned from a western and southern 
tour with $40,000, and in a short time the 
college was rebuilt in a substantial manner. 

At the commencement of 1806, fifty-four men 
were graduated, the largest class down to that 
time. There were about two hundred men in 
college ; the number of students was constantly 
increasing, and the outlook was very gratifying, 
when suddenly the " Grreat Rebellion " of 1807 
broke out, in which the rebels w^ere worsted, 
with loss of half their number. For some 
reasons not certainly known, a spirit of discon- 
tent had been growing, which finally culminated 
in open revolt. 



ANTE BELLUM. 85 

The conspirators made their arrangements 
with the boldness and skill of many Catilines. 
Old North was stocked with provisions for a 
long siege, troops were thoroughly organized, 
and on a prearranged signal every door was 
barricaded, and all the lower windows blocked 
with firewood. History leaves us to imagine 
the onslaught of the President and his trusty 
cohort of instructors, the threats of dire punish- 
ment, and the stern defiance hurled from the 
deep embrasures of third-story windows. Within 
the beleaguered walls, the ancient order of the 
Roman Republic was revived with a fidelity 
which reflects the highest credit on the classical 
instruction of the college. Two consuls held 
sway over an elaborately organized state. It is 
not known whether internal feuds, famine, or 
overwhelming assaults from without led to 
capitulation, but certain it is, that after several 
heroic days the tutors were again in possession 
of the entries, and \\\q fortes viri of the repub- 
lic were reduced to the ignominious position of 
disorderly students. 

A guard of citizens was called in to protect 
college propert}^, and an investigation insti- 
tuted which resulted in the dismissal of a num- 
ber of offenders and the censure of others. The 
men were not satisfied, however, and presented 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



a petition which was regarded by the Faculty 
as offensive. The students were assembled, 
and informed that the roll would be called ; 
that every student might answer to his name 
and either separate himself from the combina- 
tion or adhere to it. 

" When this business was about to be begun, one of the 
leaders of the association rose and gave a signal to the 
rest, and they rushed out of the hall with shouting and 
yelling. . . . The Faculty declared to the students 
that those who were going in this riotous manner were 
now suspended from the College." 

Out of two hundred students, one hundred 
and twenty-five were suspended, nearly half of 
whom afterwards returned. Thus ended the 
Great Rebellion, — a fantastic episode, but one 
which left a deep mark on the college. It was 
many years before the catalogue again showed 
an enrolment equal to that which preceded the 
siege of Old North. 

On the retirement of President Smith in 1812, 
Dr. Ashbel Grreen, the valedictorian who had 
enjoyed the honor of addressing Washington 
and the Continental Congress in 1783, was unan- 
imously elected by the board to succeed him. 
Dr. Grreen entered upon the duties of his office 
with a nervousness and trepidation which may 
have contributed a little to the realization of 



ANTE BELLUM. 87 



the difficulties be feared. " My first address to 
the students," he says, " produced a considerable 
impression, insomuch that some of them shed 
tears. This greatly encouraged me ; but the 
appearance was delusive or fugitive. Notwith- 
standing all the arrangements I had made, and 
all the pains I had taken to convince them that 
their own good and the best interests of the 
institution were my only aim, I had the mortifi- 
cation to find that the majority of them seemed 
bent on mischief." One cannot escape the con- 
viction that the Siood Doctor exa2:o:erated the 
situation a little, for only a year or two before, 
a committee of visitors had reported " that 
during the present session the students of the 
college have been in general attentive to their 
studies, and that great order and regularity 
have been observed in the dining room." ^ 

' The following letters from President Green are interesting as 
showing his views upon the state of affairs. 

Princeton, April 12, 1815. 
Revd. & DEAR Sir : 

I yesterday received three copies of your sermon entitled the 
"Gospel Harvest," for which I sincerely thank you. On the envel- 
ope to request an account of the "glorious revival" of religion in 
the college here. It has been truly glorious. We number between 
40 & 50 hopeful converts, in the last four or five months. But the 
trustees of the college, at their last meeting, have directed me to 
publish the statement which I made to them on this interesting sub- 
ject. I am now preparing it for the press, & expect it will be 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



Although from the first " every kind of insub- 
ordination that they could devise was practiced," 

published in a few days. A copy shall be immediately forwarded to 
you. 

This morning I have had the great gratification to learn, by a 
letter from Mr. Gallaudet of Hartford, that a remarkable revival of 
religion has begun in Yale college. By his representation it appears 
that there is a wonderful similarity between what is taking place at 
Yale, & what was witnessed here in January last. Labourers in the 
gospel vineyard, & reapers of the gospel harvest, will, I trust, be pro- 
vided by these dispensations of divine grace & mercy. If any thing 
short of the power of God could convince infidels of the excellence 
of evangelical principles, I should suppose it would be a view of 
the change which is made on the tempers & in the lives of those, On 
whose hearts these principles have made a practical impression. 
Never, certainly, have I seen youth so amiable, & in all respects so 
promising, as the mass of those who now compose the students of 
Nassau Hall. A year ago this was far, very far, from being the 
fact. The change has manifestly been wrought by the finger of 
God, & to him be all the praise. 

I wait with a degree of impatience for the communication which 
you have promised to make. 

With best regards to Mrs. Morse, I am, affectionately & sincerely 

Your friend & brother 
Dr. Morse. A. Green. 

Princeton, June 14, 181 7. 
Revd. & DEAR Sir : 

You are not ignorant that the present Vice President & professor of 
Mathematics & Philosophy expects to vacate his place in the college 
here, at the end of the present session. It will be highly injurious to 
the interests of the institution, if the important professorship in ques- 
tion be either left open, or badly filled. Yet to find a person calcu- 
lated, in all respects, to fill it advantageously, may be a matter of no 
small difficulty. Such a person I do not know. I know a number 
who have science enough. But not one whom, on the whole, I could 
recommend. The design of this letter is to request you to look 
round you & make inquiries, in your region of country & acquaint- 



ANTE BELLUM. 89 



the first flagrant outbreak occurred on the 9th 
of January, 1814, when " a little after nine 

ance, for a suitable man to take the place of professor Slack. As to 
the Vice Presidency I think it most probable that it will be attached 
to Mr. Lindsly, if he will consent to take it. It is much to be 
regretted that this office was ever instituted. It is utterly useless ; & 
it has proved a millstone about the neck of the present occupant, 
which has had more influence to sink him than every thing beside. 
The contemplated professor ought to be a man of religion, & of ac- 
commodating temper & manners ; & a young man will do better than 
an old one. 

Nothing can exceed the peace & order of the college from the com- 
mencement of the session till the present time. We have not had a 
case of discipline. But this was the fact also last winter, till within 
ten days of the riots. I hope the present calm is not the precursor of 
another storm. That storm, however, has not hurt but helped us. 
I believe there never was such an accession of students to the college, 
in the Spring of the year, since it existed, as there has been this 
Spring. The house is full, & there are 8 with Mr. Lindsly, waiting 
to enter. Such is the issue of the gloomy prognostications of some, 
who probably wished what they foretold, & are vexed that their pre- 
dictions have proved to be false. I have always believed & said that 
the publick would bear us out in a strict question of discipline ; & 
that the college would not sink but rise under it. The late occur- 
rence has verified this opinion, even beyond my own calculations. 
A former rebellion was the consequence, undoubtedly, of a total 
relaxation of government ; & the institution instantly sunk & never 
rose again under the administration in which it occurred. With 
these unquestionable facts staring them in the face, it does seem a 
little strange that certain men speak & act as they do. For two or 
three weeks past there has been an increasing seriousness in college, 
but as yet there is nothing more. Whether it will vanish or continue, 
time alone can determine. 

With affection & respect 

Yours truly 
Revd. Dr. James Richards, A. Green. 

New Ark, 

New Jersey. 



90 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



o'clock the tremendous explosion took place of 
what has been denominated the hig cracker.'''' 
At two o'clock that morning the outbuildings of 
the college were discovered to be on fire. The 
steward, with the aid of the tutors and some 
orderly students, extinguished the flames so 
quickly that the greater part of the college 
knew nothing of it. In the morning it appeared 
that arrangements had been made "for some 
mighty work of mischief " in the Prayer Hall. 
Loose powder, a quantity of tinder, and a keg 
were found on the stage of the hall before the 
pnlpit. The intention had evidently been to 
divert attention by the conflagration outside, 
and then spring the mine within. The day 
passed quietly, however, until about nine 
o'clock, when a tremendous crash shook the 
entire building. The President, who was walk- 
ing in his study at the time, hastened to the 
scene. In the second entry he found the re- 
mains of an " infernal machine," which had 
been constructed from the huge hub of a wagon 
wheel, loaded with several pounds of powder. 
The adjacent walls were cracked from top to 
bottom, nearly ail the glass in the vicinity was 
broken, and a large piece of the bomb had been 
driven through the door of the Prayer Hall. 
The President acted with so much vigor and 



ANTE BELLUM. 9 1 

Judgment iu discovering and punishing the per- 
petrators that he had no serious trouble after- 
wards. 

I cannot resist the temptation to quote one 
little incident from his autobiography, which 
throws a curious light on the primitive methods 
of discipline in the days when there was no Mat. 
Goldie,* arm^d with the terrors of a proctor's 
authority : 

" At length, however, the disorder was extended to the 
entries of the college. When this took place I, on a cer- 
tain evening, took a candle in my hand, and went to the 
passage through which the mass of students return from 
supper. They passed me in perfect silence and respect ; 
but as soon as they got out of sight in the upper entries, 
some of them began the usual yell. The vice-president 
ran through the crowd and seized one of the small rogues 
in the very act of clapping and hallooing, took him up in 
his arms, and brought him through the whole corps, and 
set him down before me, as I stood with the candle in my 
hand, talking to a crowd that I had called about me. I 
seized the opportunity to address them at some length, 
and to endeavor to reason, to shame, and to intimidate 
them out of their folly. ... It certainly had a good 
effect." 

The close of the college year witnessed an- 
other interesting scene on the commencement 
stage. Winiield Scott, still suffering from the 
glorious wounds of war, was passing through 

* College proctor from 1870-1892. 



92 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Princeton on his way from the north. He was 
borne to the platform, where "all united in 
clamorous greetings to the young, wounded sol- 
dier, the only representative that they had seen 
of a successful, noble army." The valedictorian 
had taken as his theme, " A Patriot Citizen in 
Time of War." By permission of the Faculty, 
changes were made which gave it a personal 
reference, and the future Major-Greneral was able 
to understand how Washington felt under a 
similar ordeal, thirty-one years before. 

The commencement of that day had a pic- 
turesque accompaniment, which reminds one of 
an old harvest festival in Merrie Englande. The 
crops were all garnered, and the country folk for 
miles around flocked to the town to see the dis- 
tinguished visitors and celebrate the end of an- 
other season's toil. The street in front of the 
college and the church where commencement ex- 
ercises were held resembled a county fair. Hun- 
dreds of men, women, and children surrounded 
the booths, tables, and wagons, where venders 
praised the virtues of their cheap wares, or com- 
forted the crowd with cider and small beer. At 
intervals the street was rapidly cleared, and 
tumultuous cheers greeted a bunch of panting 
horses as they dashed down the highway for the 
local sweepstakes. Boys and men played for 



ANTE BELLUM. 95 



pennies, fiddlers scraped away while robust 
couples danced the country jigs. On one occa- 
sion the venerable old cannon back of North 
was forced to be party to a bull-baiting. The 
unfoi'tunate brute was fastened by the horns to 
the lievolutionary veteran, and worried by a 
pack of dogs, to the great delectation of a large 
and appreciative assemblage. 

This annual saturnalia was naturally exces- 
sively annoying to the college authorities, and 
so early as 1807 we find the Board passing the 
following resolution : 

" Resolved, That no person whatever be permitted to 
erect any booth, or fix any wagon for selling liquor or 
other refreshment on the day of Commencement on the 
ground of the College, except on that part of the road to 
the eastward of the middle gate of the front Campus, and 
that this Board will pay the expense of carrying this reso- 
lution into effect." 

It was largely in order to esca2:)e these " un- 
happy accompaniments," that the day for com- 
mencement was changed, in 1843, from Septem- 
ber to the month of June. 

If it is true that the nation is happy which 
has no history, Princeton men can look with 
pleasure on the thirty years of Dr. James Car- 
nahan's presidency, extending from 1823 to 
1853. The record of this period is a i-ecord of 



96 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

prosperity and quiet, substantial growth. East 
and West colleges, a professor's house, a refec- 
tory, a chapel, and the Whig and Clio Halls were 
built. The campus was enlarged and improved, 
the standard of studies gradually raised, and the 
number of instructors tripled. 

The administration of President Maclean 
"the best loved man in America," was marked 
by two unfortunate events : the burning of 
Nassau Hall in 1855, and the withdrawal of the 
Southern students at the beginning of the war. 

Princeton had always an unusually large con- 
stituency in the South — more so than any other 
Northern institution. In ante-bellum days about 
two fifths of the undergraduates were from that 
section. Naturally the intense political feeling 
of the time found its expression among the 
students, and heated discussions often led to 
arguments of a different kind. A national flag 
which had been run up over the belfry of Old 
North was taken down by order of the Presi- 
dent. The Faculty, although thoroughly loyal 
to the Union, endeavored to keep the peace of 
the college by preventing conflicts which might 
lead to disorder. The Northern men insisted 
on the flag, however, and Capt. John Margerum 
of Princeton, amid the enthusiastic cheers of the 
students, climbed to the dizzy height above the 



ANTE BELLUM. 99 



cupola and fastened the old colors to the top- 
most peak. The flag was hardly up, before a 
heavy gale bent the rod, so that the vane 
pointed to the north throughout the four years 
of the war. This reminiscence is still cherished 
by old citizens as one of the omens of the time. 
Three students, who had been expelled for 
"pumping" a too outspoken "copperhead," 
were sent away with a grand demonstration. 
Enthroned in a wagon, bedecked with flags and 
banners, they were drawn through the town by 
hundreds of citizens and students, who tugged 
at the long ropes and heralded their approach 
by tumultuous cheering. Numerous stops were 
made, and the long serpent which drew the car 
circled again about it, to shout themselves hoarse 
over the speeches of the retiring patriots. 

After Sumter was fired on, the Southern 
students — more than ninety in number — with- 
drew in a body, and the perplexities of the 
Faculty were at an end. 

President Maclean carried the college through 
the troublous times which followed, and retired 
in 1868, beloved by all his students, and vener- 
ated by all who knew him. During his term, 
gifts amounting to more than $400,000 were 
bestowed upon the college, the Halsted Obser- 
vatory was secured, and the splendid f')unda- 



100 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

tion of the Jolin C. Green School of Science 
projected. The third and most glorious era had 
begun, and it remained for Dr. McCosh to realize 
its magnificent promise, and add his name to the 
list of brilliant men who have presided over 
the destinies of Nassau Hall. 



V. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSH. 

It was a, good day for Princeton when Dr. 
McCosh wrote from Queen's College, Belfast : 

" I devote myself and my remaining life, under God, 
to old Princeton, and the religious and literary interests 
with which it is identified, and, I fancy, will leave my 
bones in your graveyard beside the great and good men 
who are buried there, hoping that my spirit may mount 
to communion with them in heaven." 

Dr. McCosh's early life was spent on his 
father's farm, in the southern part of Ayrshii'e. 
Here he was reared in a thatched dwellino;, sur- 
rounded by cow-houses, a stable, cart-house, 
and barn. This modest home looked out upon 
the smiling valley of the Doon, and over the 
meadows and hills of the " land of Burns " the 
farmer's boy was accustomed to wander at will 
with his pony, "Cuddy," and his collie, 
" Famous," studying the meadow-sweet and fox- 
glove, observing the habits of birds, and exercis- 



I02 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

ing that reflective disposition whicli lie had 
inherited from his father. 

In November, 1824, an Ayrshire boy, age 
thirteen, v^'^as entered in the preparatory class at 
Glasgow University. He was a tall, shy youth, 
and his fellow collegians took little or no notice 
of him. He made few friends, and lived the 
retired and uneventful life of a student. The 
languages he acquired with difficulty, but early 
in his course the fascinating problems of phi- 
losophy took possession of his mind. He had 
also an insatiable appetite for miscellaneous 
reading, devoured the works of Scott and Byron 
as they came out, and roused the anger of a 
somewhat choleric librarian by insisting on hav- 
ing new books immediately upon their publica- 
tion. His mind developed slowly, and, owing 
to his extreme youth, he did not succeed in 
surpassing the leading students, although main- 
taining an honorable rank. He left Glasgow, 
he says, without a professor or fellow-student 
imagining that he would ever reach any distinc- 
tion. He was a Scotchman, and could keep his 
own counsel, but built into the rugged granite 
of his character was the unexpressed thought 
and purpose that " I would one day hold my 
place with the best of them, provided persever- 
ance could do it." 




PRESIDENT MCCOSH. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSH. I05 

111 the fall of 1829 James McCosh, drawn by 
the name of Thomas Chalmers, went to Edin- 
burgh, where he pursued a divinity course for 
five years. The personal force of this great 
teacher, the richness of his thought and the impet- 
uosity of his eloquence, made a deep impression 
on the student from Glasgow, and in later life 
he expressed the opinion that Chalmers was, 
upon the whole, the greatest man he had met 
with. Those ^vere the golden days of Edin- 
burgh, when John Leslie and Sir William Ham- 
ilton were delivering their lectures, when the 
redoubtable Francis Jeffrey was training the 
guns of the Edinburgh Review^ and " the great 
unknown " was entertainino; the world with his 
Waverley Novels. Edinburgh did not require 
as much commonplace daily study as Glasgow, 
but the atmosphere of the place was literary and 
philosophical, and under its genial influence the 
ripening powers of the future metaphysician 
began to show theii" real vigor, 

Mr. McCosh had been in the university a 
very short time, before his abilities were recog- 
nized and he won and maintained a hif^h rank 
and an influential position among the students. 
The new science of geology interested him 
greatly ; he read deeply in philosophy, and, at 
times, in fact, gave his theological studies a rather 



I06 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

subordinate place. After completing liis course 
lie shrank from entering the ministry at once, 
doubting his fitness, and devoted another year 
to readiuo*. 

In the spring of 1834 he was finally licensed 
by the Presbytery of Ayr, a member being ap- 
pointed to tell him he must make his preaching 
more popular and less abstract, leaving out such 
phrases as transcendental and the like, — an ad- 
monition which the young minister endeavored 
patiently and successfully to obey. This is not 
the place to give an account of Dr. McCosh's 
long and eventful service in the ministry, his 
various pastorates, and his fearless leadership in 
fighting Establishment and founding the Free 
Church of Scotland. In 1850 he published his 
Method of Divine Government, a book which 
has gone through at least twenty editions, and 
which at once established his reputation as a 
writer and thinker. 

The year 1852 saw him installed as Professor 
of Logic and Metaphysics at Queens College, 
Belfast. For sixteen years he devoted himself 
to teaching and research in those fields of 
knowledge to which his genius called him, 
writing a number of books, and throwing him- 
self eagerly into the philosophical battles of the 
time. In the midst of this active and absorbing 




MCCOSH WALK. 



ADMINISTRATION- OF JAMES McCOSH. IO9 

life, he came home, one May evening, from his 
work in Queens, and found a despatch announ- 
cing that he had been elected President of 
Princeton College. 

Before the election of Dr. McCosh the stu- 
dents were unanimously in his favor, and when, 
on the 20th of October, 1868, the Tripoli was 
reported off Sandy Hook, they were prepared 
to give the newly arrived President a rousing 
reception. 

In the words of the Lit. " Gossip " of that 
time : 

"As the hands of the clock crept around to four, there 
arose from the college a shout, the Nassau shout, which 
always draws a crowd. Then there was a rushing to the 
depot, and a marshalling of students. Soon the shrill 
whistle, and after, the ' down brakes,' announced that he 
had come — announced the arrival of McCosh. Of 
course there was cheering again, the old cheer of the 
Nassaus, and the procession moved towards the Presi- 
dent's house. . . . Arrived at the house, the stu- 
dents formed in semi-circle about the front, when Dr. 
Atwater, Acting President, introduced to them Their 
Real President, James McCosh. He, stepping forth, was 
received with loudest hurrahing." 

That night the Triangle resounded to the 
tread of marching columns, rockets shot up 
into the night, and the old cannon glowed red 
to its very heart, under the roar of a blazing 



no PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

bonfire. A week later, the inauguration. Every 
body is here. The new President is welcomed 
by polished addresses in English and a learned 
speech in Latin. That evening the campus is 
gay with flaring calcium lights and the mellower 
rays of colored transparencies for the first time 
since the visit of Lafayette. 

Dr. McCosh's long experience as a teacher, 
his important service in developing the Uni- 
versity of Belfast, and his intimate acquaintance 
with the educational methods of Europe and 
America, gave him a special fitness for the task 
with which he was confronted. His first report 
to the Board of Trustees indicated that a strong 
hand was upon the helm. Among the eight 
recommendations he offered, are two of special 
significance. 

The first was that " Encouragement should be 
given to the founding of scholarships or fellow- 
ships, to be earned by graduates at a competition 
and fitted to promote high scholarship, and 
retain young men of ability for a longer time 
at their favorite studies." It was the President's 
opinion that the attainments of the great majority 
of students was as high in America as in Europe. 
But he found in the new world no selected body 
of men doing post-graduate woi'k along special 
lines and cultivating a high grade of scholarship. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSH. Ill 

It was to meet this need that the recom- 
mendation was made. As a result, there are 
now a dozen fellowships in various departments 
offered to the graduating class, and the remark- 
able roll of scholars and professors who have 
been graduated under Dr. McCosh, shows how 
successful his policy has beeu. 

The second recommendation concerned the 
introduction of electives. In 1868 the candidates 
for degrees were confined to a four-years' 
required course in Latin, Greek, and mathe- 
matics, with a little science and philosophy. It 
was felt that some place should be found for 
the new studies which the great advances in 
science had developed, and at the same time the 
degrees must not be suffered to lose their 
meaning. It was found impossible to require 
additional studies while retaining all old ones, 
and the elective system was devised to meet the 
difficulty. During the twenty yeai's of his 
administration, this elective system was care- 
fully matured, under the judicious and progres- 
sive direction of the President. Step by step, 
the number of electives was increased, until 
required work in classics and mathematics 
became confined to freshman and sophomore 
years, and the upper classmen could make their 
choice from an inviting schedule, containing as 



112 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

great a number of branches as are usually taught 
in the universities of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, and nearly all the branches taught in 
Germany. 

The spirit of Dr. McCosh's administration is 
well expressed in a sentence or two from his 
closing address : 

" I said to myself and I said to others, We have a fine 
old college here, with many friends ; why should we not 
make it equal to any college in America, and, in the end, 
to any in Europe ? The friends of Princeton saw I was 
in earnest, and nobly did they encourage me." 

" In those days I was like the hound in the leash ready 
to start, and they encouraged me with their shouts as I 
sprang forth to the hunt." 

The enthusiasm was contagious. The students 
talked of the "new era," and generous alumni 
responded liberally to the Doctor's calls for 
funds. Money poured in. New chairs were 
endowed, and buildings went up as if by magic. 

There has scarcely been a time since 1868 when 
some part of the campus has not been littered 
with the stones and lumber of a new build- 
ing. The Halsted Observatory was rising when 
Dr. McCosh was inaugurated. In his speech on 
that occasion, the incoming President declared 



'^- - ,«!I(J- 




ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSH. II5 

witli great applause from tlie students, that 
every college should have a gymnasium for the 
body as well as for the mind. It was not two 
years before he had the pleasure of dedicating 
what was then the best gymnasium in America. 
Shortly afterwards, Dickinson Hall was opened 
with its comfortable recitation rooms. In 1871 
Reunion Hall added a dormitory for the rapidly 
increasing number of students. Two years later 
the Chancellor Green Library was completed. 
In the same year Mr. J. C. Green started the 
Quadrangle of the School of Science, the stately 
Gothic facade of which ornaments the eastern 
campus. Then followed Murray Hall, devoted 
to the use of the Philadelphian Society. In 
rapid succession University Hall, Witherspoon, 
the new President's Mansion, Marquand Chapel, 
Edwards Hall, The Biological Museum, and the 
Art School were added, not to mention some 
less imposing buildings. 

Before the rapid multiplication of buildings 
had gone far, a landscape gardener was employed 
to prepare a plan for the extension and improve- 
ment of the campus. Dr. McCosh took a great 
interest in this work, and had the grounds laid 
out somewhat on the model of the demesnes of 
English noblemen. Dozens of deformed trees 
and shrubs bowed to his orders, and hundreds 



Il6 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

of new ones were planted under his directions. 
On more than one uncertain April day has the 
tall form of the President been seen on the 
campus, as he walked about with shoots 
and cuttings under his arm, carefully deciding 
where they should be placed. The contrasting 
styles and architectural beauty of the new 
buildings were well set off by the smooth sweep 
of shady lawns between, and the result is a 
campus which was some years ago pronounced 
by the President of Harvard the most beautiful 
in America. 

This material development was paralleled by 
not less extensive additions to the teaching 
force. In 1868 there were ten professors, four 
tutors, tw^o teachers, in all sixteen engaged in 
instruction, besides three extraordinary lecturers. 
In enlarging the teaching corps, as demanded 
by the expanding curriculum and the growing 
number of students, it was found difficult to 
secure the kind of men desired. A system of 
training professors was accordingly introduced. 
College Fellows were started as tutors and 
instructors, finally working into full professor- 
ships. As a result of this method, nearly all 
the younger members of the faculty are Prince- 
ton men. In 1888, the teaching force consisted 
of thirty-five professors, three tutors, and 



ADMINISTRA TION OF JAMES McCOSH. I 1 9 

several assistants and lecturers, in all upwards 
of forty. 

Dr. McCosh criticised the European univer- 
sities for their utter neglect of students outside 
of the class-room. He felt that, without in any 
way infringing on the liberty of students, it was 
possible to take an interest in their welfare, and 
come into contact with them in a personal way. 
It was his determined policy to endeavor to 
impress upon the incoming professors, a sense 
of their responsibility in this direction. The 
kindly Doctor was not content with enfor- 
cing regulations for the preservation of college 
morals. He opened his doors and received the 
students with unstinted hospitality into his 
spacious mansion. Many an alumnus cherishes 
in his memory a picture of that tea-table, a few 
students around it, the Doctor at the head, 
leading the conversation with his strong, cheery 
voice and slight Scotch accent ; his wife Isa- 
bella, "the mother of the students," opposite 
him, pouring tea and making friendly inquiries. 

What student of the last administration does 
not remember Isabella McCosh ? No under- 
graduate could be sick for a day without hear- 
ing her gentle rap at his door ; without receiving 
the benediction of that sweet, motherly face, 
and enjoying the light ministrations of her 



120 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

hands. Appetizing broths, and delicacies in 
snowy napkins came over from Prospect, and it 
is feared that occasionally a homesick student 
found it pleasanter to be on the sick-list under 
the Jurisdiction of Mrs. McCosh than on the roll 
of active service under the professors. And 
when the beautiful infirmary which now graces 
the hill-crest on the campus was first projected, 
it could have received no other name than that 
which it now bears : '' The Isabella McCosh 
Infirmary." 

There were some matters of discipline requir- 
ing attention, and the new President took hold 
of them with a prudent yet vigorous hand. 
Hazing in particular was at that time a general 
practice, and was carried at times to almost 
brutal extremes. On one memorable occasion 
a freshman was observed in chapel with a 
smooth and shining expanse of head that would 
have rivalled the display of the baldest octo- 
genarian. The President sent for Chancellor 
Green and took legal advice. The prospect of 
a criminal action and a course in the State 
prison brought the offenders to their knees. 
They all confessed, promised never to do it 
again, and were pardoned. The result of such 
a course was a vast abatement of the evil. In 
fact, after a few years scarcely any hazing was 



ADMINISTRATIOM OF JAMES McCOSH. 121 

practised, if we except a little harmless " guy- 
ing " on the campus. 

In the early 'TO's it was found necessary to 
take measures against the Greek-letter frater- 
nities. Althou2;h under the ban of colleixe 
law, they had gradually worked their way in, 
and finally were openly avowed, by the display 
of badges upon the campus. In their train 
came disaster to the two old literary halls. At 
that time the representative orators and de- 
baters were chosen, not by contest, as at present, 
but by popular election. The fraternity men 
in the halls intrigued for their own men, literary 
qualifications were largely overlooked, and the 
institutions were becoming reduced to disorderly 
lobbies. Literary life was dying out. The 
halls took the question up themselves, and 
became divided into two warrins; factions — the 
fraternity and the anti-fraternity men. 

The influence of these organizations extended 
outside of the halls. They cousj^ired to protect 
their men from discipline, and on one occasion 
a single susj^ension was followed by an open 
outbreak. Under these circumstances the Presi- 
dent threw his heavy sword into the scales of 
the anti-fraternity men. There was vigorous 
opposition from the hostile faction and great 
excitement throui^hout the collesje, but frater- 



122 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

nities had to go, root and branch. Rid of this 
disintegrating element, Whig and Clio revived, 
the college recovered its ancient spirit of unity, 
and now the most pronounced enemies of 
fraternities are the students themselves. 

Possibly this chapter would not be complete 
without some reference to the " Cannon War " 
with Rutgers. By some process, not exactly 
understood, the Rutgers boys came to believe 
that the smaller of the two cannon left here after 
the battle of Princeton belonged to them. Ac- 
cordingly, in the spring vacation of 1875, when 
the campus was deserted, a large force from 
New Brunswick made a night raid upon Prince- 
ton, dislodged the object of attack by a vigorous 
onslaught of picks and shovels, and with great 
valor carried their trophy back to Rutgers. 

When the spring vacation was over, and 
only a hole in the ground was found in place 
of the cherished totem, great was the wrath 
among the Nassaus. A campaign was organ- 
ized at once, and a long column set out for 
the banks of the Raritan, breathing out 
threatenings and slaughter. The cannon had 
been too safely secreted, but a museum in con- 
nection with the college was taken, and some 
old muskets carried back by way of reprisal. 
At this point diplomacy intervened. The 



ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSH. 12$ 



ardor of the combatants was restrained, while 
the two Faculties appointed committees to look 
into the matter. Of course, an examination of 
the records could lead to only one decision. 
The relic was brought back and planted again 
with appropriate ceremonies ; long iron rods 
were twisted around it and embedded deeply 
in cement to prevent a repetition of the theft, 
and the temple of Janus was closed. 

At the commencement of 1888 Dr. McCosh 
surrendered the keys which he had held for 
twenty years. It was a deeply impressive sight 
to see that tall and rugged figure, that massive 
head fringed with locks of white, that strongly 
featured face furrowed with the lines of 
thought and shining with the light of a 
gracious soul, as the retiring President told the 
story of " Twenty Years of Princeton College," 
and transferred the responsibility of his beloved 
college to another. 

" I take the step," he says, " firmly and 
decidedly. The shadows are lengthening, the 
day is declining. My age, seven years above 
the threescore and ten, compels it, Providence 
points to it, conscience enjoins it, the good of 
the college demands it. I take the step as one 
of duty. I feel relieved as I take it." 

The mantle of Elijah has fallen upon Elisha. 



126 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

While we leave the college in the hands of 
another, let us take a look at the venerable 
ex-President in the home of his old age on 
Prospect Avenue. The lai-ge bow windows 
of his library look over forty miles of rolling 
Jersey woods and meadow-land to the blue 
line of the Navesink Highlands. Here he has 
employed his time in revising the more impor- 
tant of his published works. That task com- 
pleted, his active mind resents the increasing 
infirmities of age, and demands some employ- 
ment. His mind turns to the past, and his 
indefatigable pen is busy upon a series of 
sketches entitled ^'■Incidents of My Life in 
Three Countries^ This task also is finished. 
If we would learn the spirit of the man and 
receive a parting benediction from his venerable 
hands, let us look over his shoulder, as his pen 
traces the words of the closing soliloquy : 

" Farewell, hill and dale, mountain and valley, foun- 
tain and stream, river and brook, lake and outflow, forest 
and shady dell, sun and moon, earth and sky. I have 
lived among you, I have been closely acquainted with 
you, I have watched you and your aspects and wandered 
much among you, I have delighted in you and loved you, 
and my heart lingers among you. I feel that there is 
nothing wrong in this, for I know that ye are all the 
works of God. Ye may have been defiled by the deeds 
of men, but ye are yourselves chaste. The air that 



ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES McCOSII. 12/ 

breathes from you is pure and exhilarating ; I will not 
forget you. In my everlasting existence I may hope to 
revisit you and renew my ardor. 

" Welcome, what immeasurably exceeds all these — 
Heaven with its glory ! Heaven with its angels that 
excel in strength ! Heaven with the spirits of just men 
made perfect ! Heaven with Jesus Himself so full of 
tenderness ! Heaven with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 



VI. 

PRINCETOlSr UNIVERSITY. 

In President McCosh's closing address, he 
said : 

" I think it proper to state that I meant all along that 
these new and varied studies, with their groupings and 
combinations, should lead to the formation of a studiutn 
generale^ which was supposed in the Middle Ages to 
constitute a university. At one time I cherished the 
hope that I might be honored to introduce such a 
measure. From my intimate acquaintance with the 
systems of Princeton and other colleges, I was so vain as 
to think that out of our available materials I could have 
constructed a university of a high order. . . . The 
college has been brought to the very borders, and I leave 
it to another to carry it over into the land of promise." 

In this country particularly, the term univer- 
sity is used with a vast amount of latitude. In 
the absence of any legal or definite historical 
criterion, the came has been used without care- 
ful discrimination, and has, in many cases, been 
appropriated by institutions which are clearly 
beyond the pale of any definition, however 
generous, their only justification being an am- 

128 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 1 29 

bitiou to some day deserve the title. In Europe, 
new institutions are not nearly so numerous. 
The older seats of learning hold this name by 
a well-earned prescription, and even where new 
schools are started, an instinctive conservatism 
prevents the hasty assumption of university 
rank. 

The tendency in America seems to be to 
reserve the strict use of the term for institutions 
which have the four faculties : arts, law, medi- 
cine, and theology; but history does not justify 
this limitation. Salei'no, Bologna, and Paris 
were universities when they had but one 
faculty. 

It is thought by others that a curriculum 
offering a wide range of studies, with freedom 
of choice to the student body, constitutes a 
university. But, since there is no one to say 
just where the line must be drawn as to extent 
of courses and freedom of choice, the definition 
is of little practical value. The English univei'- 
sities are merely examining and degree-granting 
bodies, with more or less closely affiliated col- 
leges under them. But, judged by this standard, 
many of the foremost universities of the Avorld 
must abandon their claim to that distinction. 
The German conception seems to be that a 
university is an institution designed to promote 



130 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

original researcli and encourage the work of 
specialists. It would seem, then, that, histor- 
ically, this title has been applied to seats of 
learning which, either by the wide range of 
courses offered, or by a particularly high stand- 
ard of excellence in special departments, have 
crossed a certain indefinable line, and won for 
themselves a position in the first rank of learn- 
ing. Judged, either by the number of her 
faculties, the extent of her courses, the freedom 
of choice offered to the students, or the cultiva- 
tion of original research by a picked body of 
specialists, Princeton is certainly a university, 
in the strictest sense, if there is one in this 
country. 

As to the particular kind of university which 
Princeton represents, it may be said that her 
type is composite. The founders of the College 
of New Jersey designed it upon the broad basis 
of a stiidmm generate. Their expressed pur- 
pose was an opportunity for liberal culture. 
The subsequent expansion has resulted from 
natural and healthy evolution. By steadily 
raising the entrance requirements, and extending 
the curriculum under the elective system, the 
Facult)^ of Arts has been brought to a posi- 
tion where Juniors and seniors are doing real 
university work. 





HKONZE STATUE OF PRESIDENT MCCOSH IN MARQUAND CHAPEL, 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 1 33 

The School of Science was originally founded 
to find a place for the sciences which were 
clamoring for admission into the regular aca- 
demic course. It was not designed to give a 
merely technical training, but to satisfy the 
demand for a course which would recoirnize, to 
the fullest extent, the disciplinary value of 
modern scientific studies. Modern languages 
took the place of classics, and some of the 
English and other courses of the Academic 
Department were required, in order that the 
first conception of the college, a broad, human- 
izing culture, might not yield to a narrow, 
technical training. 

The development of the school, however, and 
its greatest success has been along lines other 
than those anticipated by its founders. It has 
grown with amazing rapidity, and its require- 
ments have been steadily raised. Courses are 
offered, with a liberal range of electives, in 
general science, chemistry, and biology and 
chemistry, for a degree of bachelor of science. 
There are also courses for deo;rees of Civil 
Engineer and Electrical Engineer. A minority 
of the students in the school, however, have 
entered for the general Bachelor of Science 
course, sixty per cent, of the undergraduates 
enrolled being candidates for the degrees of 



134 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

C.E. or E.E. This tendency has been recog- 
nized by the Scientific Faculty ; courses have 
been adapted ; the best apparatus and equip- 
ment have been put at the service of technical 
students, and the result is that a large body of 
men are graduated every year, prepared to enter 
at once upon the pi-actice of their professions. 

The School of Science has already evolved 
two separate schools of the first rank. The new 
chemical laboratory was designed by Prof. 
Cornwall, after a careful study of the leading 
schools at home and abroad. The result is a 
building which, for convenience and complete- 
ness of equipment, is at present unrivalled. 
Beside the regular undergraduates, there is an 
increasing number of graduate students who are 
doing advanced and special work of a high order. 

The new Electrical School, under Prof. 
Brackett, has also the advantage of a thoroughly 
modern equipment. Most of its students have 
already taken the first degree, either in arts or 
science, and the course is thoroughly technical, 
with severe requirements both in the theory 
and practice of electrical engineering. 

Princeton has no undue ambition to multiply 
her faculties. The opportunities of her pi^esent 
field are felt to be so vast, that her main energies 
may well be directed in conserving and devel- 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 1 37 

oping what is already here. The tendency 
seems to be for each department to grow into a 
more advanced university type, acquiring, as it 
develops, something of an autonomy. In the 
Academic School, the Departments of Philoso- 
phy, Language and Literature, and Mathematics 
and Natural Science have already made consider^ 
able progress in the direction of advanced work 
by post-graduate specialists. In addition to the 
fourteen university fellows, there are now over 
a hundred graduate students in the various 
courses, seventy per cent, of whom have taken 
the first degree in other colleges. 

There is, of course, no Theological Faculty, 
the Princeton Seminary having no organic con- 
nection whatever with the college. This is 
doubtless an advantage, since a seminary can 
hardly escape a denominational character, while 
a university must, of course, be entirely free 
from such limitations. At the same time there 
is a friendly reciprocity which secures all the 
substantial advantages of an organic union. The 
students of each institution are admitted freely 
to the courses of the other, and the privileges 
of both libraries are also enjoyed in common. 

Perhaps the next development will be in the 
direction of a Law Faculty. It is one of the 
President's most cherished projects, and will 



138 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

doubtless be realized as soon as the necessary 
funds are available. It is not his design to estab- 
lish a law school in the ordinary sense of the 
term — that is to say, a school to prepare men 
merely for their bar examinations. Dr. Patton 
wishes to found chairs from which law will be 
tausfht, not so much as a science as a branch of 
philosophy. The professional law schools have 
no time to deal with the History and Philosophy 
of Jurisprudence, and the institution which 
first secures a foundation for advanced study 
in this department will enter a field compara- 
tively unoccupied in this country, and will 
doubtless draw about it a select body of 
scholarly jurists. Experience has shown that 
such a philosophical course affords an invalu- 
able basis for the subsequent study of practice 
law. This Law School will not come as a 
creation, but as the outgrowth of the present 
Department in Political Science. In fact, it is 
in a measure already realized. 

When Dr. McCosh came to Princeton, the 
catalogue showed 264 students ; when he 
retired, the number enrolled had increased to 
603. Dr. Patton in his inaugural was rash 
enough to express the hope that he might live 
to see the numbers reach 1000. Four years 
have sufficed to see his dream more than 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 141 

realized, and the only practical limit to growth 
seems to be the lack of accommodations. Diirine 
this period twelve buildings have been erected 
or undertaken at an aggregate cost of over 
$1,000,000, and other valuable endowments have 
been given to the college. However, the needs 
have outstripped the generosity of friends, most 
of the recent structures have increased the ex- 
penses rather than the revenues, and there was 
never a time when liberal endowments were 
more ui-gently required. About thirty men 
have been added to the teaching force, and the 
strain upon resources in this regard is par- 
ticularly severe. 

This unprecedented growth, so inspiring to 
all who are interested in Old Nassau, is due to 
a variety of causes. 

A large part of it is a direct outgrowth of 
the splendid work done under the administra- 
tion of Dr. McCosh. His own world-wide 
reputation strengthened the college he gov 
erned. Under his leadership. Trustees, Faculty, 
alumni, and students were united in an earnest 
effort to push Princeton into the foremost place, 
and a number of wealthy benefactors came 
forward to make the accomplishment of their 
plans possible. The country at large is just 
beginning to realize what Princeton has 
become, and the natural result is a great 



142 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

increase in tlie number of applications for, 
matriculation. 

When Dr. Patton took the presidential 
chair, he was known as a man of profound 
erudition and brilliant intellectual gifts. 
During the four years of his administration, 
he has shown himself as skilful and successful 
in dealing with the executive details of his 
office, as in handling the more abstruse ques- 
tions of metaphysics. The charm of his per- 
sonality, and his sparkling addresses, have won 
the hearts of alumni all over the country. 
Most of all, perhaps, his generous confidence in 
the student body, his ready sympathy with 
undergraduate life, and the kindly interest he 
shows in all whose affairs may require his con- 
sideration, have v/on for him the steadfast 
regard of every man on the campus. The first 
requisite to the growth of such an institution 
is enthusiasm, and there was never a more 
enthusiastic body of men than those who are 
at present supporting the President in his 
labors for advancing the university. 

Princeton has also a cosmopolitan character, 
not enjoyed in the same degree by many of her 
rivals. Of course, the convenience of neigh- 
borhood gives to every institution a large local 
clientele., and two-thirds of the students at 
Nassau come from the four great Middle 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 145 

States. It must be remembered, however, that 
this territory represents an area of over one 
hundred thousand square miles. Of the remain- 
ing students, 17 per cent, come from the Western 
States, 12 per cent, from the South, 1 per cent, 
from New England, and 4 per cent, from 
foreign countries. During recent years, the 
rapid gains from the West and South have 
been particularly noticeable. In ante-bellum 
days one third of the degrees were granted to 
Southern students, and there is scarcely a great 
family in all that region that cannot point to 
its name recurring more than once in the 
Catalogus Collegii Neo-Csesariensis. The pros- 
tration that followed the war, and the almost 
total extermination of many leading families, 
affected Princeton's roll very seriously ; but 
with the present revival of material interests 
in the South, her sons are beginning to return 
to their historic Mater, and the last five years 
have doubled the representation from that 
section. 

The shifting of the centre of population 
toward the west is also giving Princeton an 
increasing advantage over her ancient rivals. 
Situated on the great trunk line of the country, 
and midway between the two commercial 
capitals of the Atlantic Coast, she occupies a 



146 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

strategic position destined to give her a con- 
stantly increasing hold upon the great regions 
which lie toward the setting sun. 

It is not strange, in view of the brilliant past 
of the old college, and the marvellous renais- 
sance which recent years have witnessed, that 
Princeton men should look towards the future 
with unhesitating confidence and enthusiasm. 
They are proverbially the most devoted body 
of collegians in the country. With an ardor 
which time does not seem to diminish, gray- 
haired alumni unite with undergraduates in 
chanting the praises of the present, and prophe- 
sying great things to be written upon the virgin 
pages of coming years. The critical observer 
will doubtless make some deductions for the 
pardonable optimism which springs from a deep, 
personal interest. At the same time, he will 
recognize that a great enthusiasm cannot come 
without some adequate exciting cause. He will 
see that an institution which wins such alle- 
giance from her sons must possess an atmosphere 
most favorable to the development of a gener- 
ous, manly culture ; he will perceive in the 
spirit which pervades the sons of Nassau Hall, 
the strongest Justification of her present claims, 
as well as find in it the surest indication of a 
fondly anticipated destiny. 



VII. 

UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 

These old elms on the campus know more 
than they tell. Very few rushes they have not 
seen; not a cane-spree but they have caught 
glimpses of it around the corners of West Col- 
lege ; they have stood about the bonfires in the 
Quadrangle at many a great celebration, and 
have cast their shadows on groups of men sad- 
dened by touch-downs at the wrong end of the 
field. If Nassau Hall has a familiar spirit, and 
it certainly must have, you may be quite sure 
that it is lurking somewhere among the branches 
of the old elms. Without them Princeton 
would not be Princeton. 

At Northfield recently, where over one hun- 
dred and twenty colleges were represented, an 
Oberlin man remarked how the Princeton boys 
seemed to stick together. "Why," he said, 
"you fellows are just like one big family." 
And he was right. There is no other college 
of the size where the undergraduates are so well 

149 



I50 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

acquainted. It was in Princeton that the col- 
lege grounds were first called The Campus, and 
it is in Princeton only that the full meaning of 
the word is realized. How we do like to talk 
about that old Campus, with its broad stretches 
of lawn, its stately buildings and venerable 
elms ! How we love to breathe its air and revel 
in its unlimited freedom ! How often have we 
thrown down our books and sought relief for 
weary brain in its inexhaustible resources ! 
Does any one wish a little pi'actice at his favor- 
ite sport ? Let him go out on the Campus and 
meet a lot of fellows looking for the same thing. 
Does he want a companion for a walk, or a 
party for a quiet game in his room ? He can 
find them on the Campus. Does he long for 
the pleasure of a pure and simple loaf? He 
may join the groups in front of Old North and 
forget the ills of life in the careless drift of col- 
lege chat. One can't help getting acquainted. 
Yale and Harvard men have told me that they 
have gone through their course knowing only a 
dozen or so men. Nearly every man here is 
acquainted with his whole class, and is on 
speaking terms with half the college. Our dor- 
mitories are nothing but big club-houses, and 
the Campus is simply an extension built out 
into the open air. 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 1 53 

Then the eating clubs. They are generally 
made up of a dozen or more congenial fellows 
who make arrangements with the powers of the 
kitchen through an agent or ''club runner." 
The club runner is the Tribune of the People, 
and it is his business to present the complaints 
and wishes of his clients to the portly landlady 
(all Princeton landladies are portly), who is in- 
variably on the brink of ruin because she gives 
her boarders too much for the money. If the 
Tribune cannot preserve the comity of gastro- 
nomic relations, he takes his club to another 
house, which is always "the best place in town." 
These little circles around the table are the 
units of college life. They are the little forums 
where everything is discussed, from football to 
the Kantian Critique ; in their daily pow-wows 
friendships are formed which will never be 
broken. They are made up of men of kindred 
tastes, and each one has its distinctive character. 
One club in the senior class is composed 
entirely of philosophers. Go there for dinner, 
and you will see everybody forgetting his soup 
until they have settled the relative merits of 
Calderwood's and Martineau's theories of the 
conscience. It would not be hard to find other 
clubs where conscience never interferes with 
the soup. 



154 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

Twice within the last fifteen years has a 
" Commons " been established, where excellent 
food was supplied at reasonable rates. But 
each time the boys soon pined for the privacy 
and freedom of the old club-room with its sono- 
and jest, and the commons became a thing of 
the past. In recent years many of the clubs 
have become more ambitious, and a number of 
commodious houses have been erected. Here 
the dining-room and back parlor of the village 
■houses have given place to all the comforts of a 
modern club. Ivy was the first to build. 
Already the inviting homes of Qa]p and Gown, 
Cottage, Colonial, Tiger Inn, and University 
are occupied by their members, and additional 
buildings are going up every year. 

If the social life at Princeton is not remark- 
ably gay, it is exceedingly pleasant. The 
winter brings on the Senior Assembly and the 
Junior Promenade with their accompanying 
teas, and the Sophomore Reception makes a 
gala night in the middle of commencement week. 
Each Friday evening finds a procession of pil- 
grims on their way to the weekly reception at 
Evelyn, and orange-and-black buttons are often 
seen in New York, Philadelphia, and Trenton 
drawing-rooms. Pi'inceton is one of the oldest 
towns in Jersey, and is still the residence of a 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS, I 57 

number of colonial families, whose homesteads 
give an added charm to the quiet streets, and 
whose modern representatives unite with the 
professors and their families to make up 
" Princeton society." This circle is, of course, 
quite small in proportion to the size of the col- 
lege, but the Princeton people throw open their 
doors with a hospitality which goes far to 
compensate for lack of numbers. 

There are always some men who go out con- 
siderably, and if the number is not as large as 
it might be, the students have only themselves 
to blame. The fact is, our college life is so full 
and absorbing, that there is little inclination to 
supplement it. After running around in flannels 
all day, the decision is generally one way when 
the alternative comes in the evening of attiring 
one 's self for a call or dropping into a neigh- 
bor's room. Who does not know the charm of 
those evenings in a fellow's room ? It does n't 
matter much what is done. A few banjos 
improvise an orchestra ; there are stories, songs, 
jests, a hand at whist ; possibly crackers and 
cider for refreshments. The details are of small 
importance ; the real pleasure is in the freedom 
and abandon of college companionship, the jolly 
camaraderie of half a dozen of the best fellows 
in the world. 



158 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

These little circles fill many a long winter 
evening, but when the spring comes the twang 
of the banjo is low, and the thud of the base- 
ball bat is heard in the land. Everybody 
moves outside and becomes an athlete. The 
Princetonian issues its annual challenge to the 
Lit. / eating-club teams organize and train with 
an ardor worthy of the 'Varsity, and every 
other man you meet is a captain or manager. 
He is looking for another captain or manager, 
and wants to arrange a game for that afternoon 
back of Witherspoon. A good-natured crowd 
is on hand to coach, cheer, or guy, as the occa- 
sion demands, while the " Grasshoppers " ham- 
mer out base hits on the "Hoffman House," or 
the " Butterflies " make life miserable for the 
umpire. One can't live in Princeton without 
learning to play ball. On a good spring day 
you can scarcely walk from Reunion to the 
gymnasium without having to field a ball gone 
astray from some bat, to which your attention 
is called by vociferous cries of " Thank you, 
there ! " In the fall it is football, and wonder- 
ful teams in a wonderful medley of costumes 
play with the desperation of a Thanksgiving 
game. 

Then those Saturday trips to the neighbor- 
ing preparatory schools ! It is a beautiful day ; 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. l6l 

coaches, overtlowiug with players, managers, 
and mascots, leave the front campus gate after 
dinner, and spin across the country to Lawrence- 
ville, Hightstown, or Pennington. The "preps" 
always labor under the impression that they are 
playing, if not the 'Varsity, at least the 'Varsity 
scrub, and a corresponding degree of enthu- 
siasm prevails. The girls are out on the grand 
stand in full force, and applaud fine catches 
and errors with delightful impartiality. If the 
visitors lose, they leave a proud and happy 
prep, school behind them ; but little care they 
for that. Their coach rolls back to Princeton 
over the moonlit road, their Jolly chorus wakes 
the plodding Jersey farmer, and it is midnight 
when some strollins: students hail them at the 
campus gate with, "What's the score?" 

There is an impression among many who 
have never seen uni^^ersity life from the inside, 
that the good old days when men studied have 
gone by, and the porches of the academe have 
yielded to the shining track of Olympia. 
Twenty years ago there were no college ath- 
letics, and now the outside world hears of little 
else. Thirty thousand people go to the great 
games in New York ; only the night watchman 
sees the lio-ht in the window burnino; late into 
the night, where some Sophomore is wrestling 



1 62 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

with conic sections, or a belated Senior is pour- 
ing over the mysteries of the ens realissimum. 
The New York papers print long articles on 
the sprinter who breaks the world's record in 
the hundred yards, and publish portraits of the 
famous half-backs. No one sees how these 
same men toil for literary and curriculum hon- 
ors when they leave the athletic field; no men- 
tion is made of their twelve hundred colles-e 
mates who are quietly earning their degree by 
four years' honest work. Indeed there is a vast 
amount of intellectual life outside of the regu- 
lar courses. The two Halls are filled with eao-er 
debaters and orators. Shakespeare clubs, and 
all manner of literary circles meet during the 
winter, and spend long hours in settling the 
great problems of literary controversy. Three 
periodicals are supported by the college and 
entirely conducted by undergraduates. 

At the same time this is not what we care 
to talk about. Hours spent over Greek roots 
don't arouse much enthusiasm, but let that last 
game be mentioned. We see the whole thing 
— Just where the men stood on the bases, Just 
how the ball was pitched, Just how that famous 
hit saved the game ! Have not we, who have 
cheered to victory or supported in defeat many 
a plucky team, a right to laud the athletic 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 165 



glories of our Alma Mater ? Athletics ! They 
are the hope of our Republic. They develop 
the courao^e and vio;or and fortitude which have 
made the Ano;lo-Saxou master of the world. 
The man who watches the contest catches its 
spirit, and goes away with a larger heart and a 
firmer will. Ever may the sons of Nassau Hall 
cultivate the generous and manly vigor of the 
true " foot-ball spirit." 

In the fall there is a daily pilgrimage to the 
'Varsity grounds to see the practice. Here are 
trained those foot-ball teams whose weights as- 
sume such enormous proportions in the college 
press. We have known a half-back to go up 
from one hundred and forty to one hundred and 
fift3^-five pounds by the simple expedient of hav- 
ing his weight printed in The Crimson after a 
Harvard game. Here are developed those rush- 
ers who rush so hard that some of our friends 
can account for their prowess only on the hy- 
pothesis that they are drawing large salaries. 
The college lines-up along the ropes ; every 
player is watched, and every good play enthu- 
siastically cheered. Each spectator feels that 
the responsibility for the championship rests 
largely on liis shoulders, and has his own views 
as to the wisdom of the captain's method of 
training. For two months nothing is heard but 



1 66 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

foot-ball. The papers are read only to see the 
scores of other teams, and former games are 
played over with a never-dying interest. The 
climax comes on Thanksgiving day, w^hen we 
go to New York for the Yale game. The col- 
lege goes en masse, leaving a score of musty 
bookworms and a dozen of stranded unfortu- 
nates in sole possession. Every man wears his 
orange-and-black button, and the Freshmen 
celebrate the first opportunity to wear colors 
by a prodigious display of orange ribbons on 
their umbrellas, canes, and hats. 

Then the game ! Thousands of people, gaily 
decorated coaches, a profusion of streamers, and 
a rattlino; fire of hostile cheers. A storm of 
applause announces the appearance of the teams. 
A little practice, and then the excitement rises 
to a pitch absolutely painful as the line-up is 
made and a dashing Y opens the battle. How 
they play ! We win, or else we don't. If we 
win. New York is n't large enough for us that 
night. Every man, woman, and child on Broad- 
way seems to be wearing orange-and-black, the 
world was never so bright, the theatres are 
crowded with spectators more bent on celebra- 
ting than on seeing the play, and after midnight 
a tired and happy crowd boards the " owl " for 
Princeton, telling each other over and over 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 1 6/ 

again how it was done. If we lose, things are 
different. 

The genus poller is never more distinct than 
during the foot-ball season. He rarely casts his 
shadow within the 'Varsity gates, and some- 
times does not even know who are on the team. 
There is a tradition of a poller who was here 
for three years without knowing where the 
grounds wei'e, but it does not appear to be well 
authenticated. 

The base-ball returns with the robins, and 
with it the daily Journey to the practice field is 
renewed. Princeton generally starts out with 
a championship team and rarely fails to win 
the first Yale game. Something often turns 
up before the end of the season and we 
don't get as many championships as we should, 
but while we are enjoying the prospect of vic- 
tory everything is lovely. If it is our turn to 
go to New Haven, an eager crowd gathers in 
front of the telegraph office to hear returns an 
hour before there is a possibility of any news. 
A number of humorists take advantasre of the 
opportunity to start false reports. One goes 
up-stairs to the office, then suddenly dashes 
down in wild excitement ; his abettors at the 
door raise a cheer which is echoed over the 
whole campus. Princeton has won — seven to 



1 68 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

three ! The Freshmen are delighted until they 
meet an upper classman, who smiles and says 
that the news never comes in so early. The 
w^aiting crowd relieves the suspense by singing 
and speculating. 

At last the true word comes and we have 
won ! No rest for the Freshmen that night ! 
They must scour the town and country for a 
mile around in search of fuel. They determine 
that their fire shall be the biggest ever seen. Con- 
tracts are made for gallons of oil, and tar barrels 
sell at a premium. Prudent housekeepers have 
their front gates taken in and send their hus- 
bands out to watch the coops and dog-houses in 
the back yard. Gangs of suspicious-looking 
individuals in old clothes scout the streets and 
alleys, returning with a vast miscellany of 
boards, gates, panels of fence — anything that 
will burn. A few Junioi's with the critical eye 
of professional builders direct the arrangement 
of the pile about the big cannon. Straw and 
tar barrels first, then boxes and rails ; then 
everything that comes in. When the task is 
completed, the last can of oil poured on, and 
the dark pyramid, thirty or forty feet high, 
towers up in the centre of the quadrangle, the 
column is formed, and, with torches, horns, 
drums, bannei's, and fire-crackers, moves off in 




I— Q£ ^1 U i! 



L_.i i_„^ ^a ■ JKk 




UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 171 

triumphal march. The President and some of 
the Faculty are visited and called upon for 
speeches. They come out on their piazzas and 
make a few remarks, in which every sentence 
is punctuated by a tremendous cheer. When 
the circuit is completed the celebrators return 
to the campus and apply the match, A column 
of flame shoots up through the tree-tops, and in 
the broad glare of the bonfire happy and con- 
tented groups stand about and discuss the full 
score Just received. AYhen the embers are 
burning to a dark I'ed and the great clock in the 
belfry of Old North sti-ikes midnight, the last 
stragglers retire to their rooms or go down to 
Dohm's to finish their discussion around a table. 

Entrance exaiuinations are scarcely over be- 
fore a few zealous Juniors are busy getting the 
new class out for its first rush. With great 
care the word is circulated that the next 
night at ten the class will form back of the 
Observatory. The Sophomores are to be taken 
completely by surprise. The secret is so bur- 
densome that the Fi-eshmen gather in groups 
and talk earnestly under their breath in their 
efforts to keep it. They pass on the street with 
knowing looks, and exchange significant ges- 
tures. As a natural result, the Sophomores 
are generally in front of Reunion waiting for 



172 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

the fun to begin. What a delicious sense of 
conspiracy and adventure there is in that silent 
gathering for the first rush ! Every approach- 
ing figure is scrutinized ; rumor says the entire 
Sophomore class is lined-up back of Wither- 
spoon. Scouts are sent out to work the dormi- 
tories and report on the enemy. And then, for 
the first time, the stillness is broken by three 
cheers for '9 — ! a challenge and defiance to the 
Sophomores. It is not a very good cheer ; it is 
ragged and rough, and runs down at the end 
like an exhausted bag-pipe. But never mind, 
they mean it, and it is the old cheer. They 
will soon learn it better ; they will ring it out 
with passionate enthusiasm in the critical 
moments of great games. It will proclaim the 
joy of many a victory, and when, after four 
years' cheering, with depleted ranks they 
stand for the last time on the steps of Old 
Nassau at the close of the last Senior singing, 
they will express their undying devotion to 
class and Alma Mater by a deep and sober 
chorus in that best of college cheers : " Rah ! 
Rah ! Rah ! Tiger ! Sis ! Boom ! Ah ! Prince- 
ton ! " 

We have forgotten our Freshmen again ; but 
the Juniors have been taking good care of 
them. By this time they are marching around 



UNDER THE PRINCETON ELMS. 1 75 

the triangle singing " Here 's to '9 — ," and 
working up courage for the impending conflict. 
At last the moment of destiny is come. They 
are lined up closely, eight abreast, the big men 
in front and the little men behind, ready to 
push for all they are worth. The column heads 
for the front campus gate, and a thrill of pleas- 
ure or fear runs down every spine as the sharp, 
clear-cut Sophomore cheer announces that the 
opposing forces are coming to dispute entrance. 
This is usually the signal for Mat. Goldie to 
step in and say : " Gentlemen, if there is a rush, 
every man in it will leave college to-mori-ow." 
Sometimes this is effective, but the blood of '9 — 
is generally too warm to be cooled by the Proc- 
tor's eloquence. The Juniors pull their hats 
over their eyes and move among the Freshmen, 
suggesting that Mat. don't know them any- 
how. A short parley, and then, with a fierce 
shout, at it they go. The two solid columns 
dash together — a violent collision, a few 
moments' desperate pushing in the densely 
packed masses, suddenly something gives way, 
and you are either Joining in a rousing cheer for 
victory, or gathering the scattered forces for 
another charge. These rushes are comparatively 
harmless, and do a great deal to bring men 
together. 



176 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

After the rush comes the pasting of the 
" procs," and then the cane-spree, and so one 
might go on indefinitely. But a complete nar- 
ration of the whole medley of events which 
make up our varied existence would still fail 
to give its essence, the indefinable charm of that 
spirit which lingers about Nassau Hall and 
sheds its influence over all the petty incidents 
of college life. We feel it when, in those inex- 
tricable groups where every one seems to be 
reclining on every one else, we lie on the grass 
and listen to the Senior singing ; it creeps over 
us when we stroll about the campus under the 
stars; it comes down with the moonbeams 
through the leaves of the whispering elms ; and 
in after years, when the glad freedom of under- 
graduate life is past, and the whilom college 
boy has become a grave alumnus, and is pulling 
steadily in the traces on the dusty highway of 
life, betimes in day-dreams will come a fragrant 
breeze and the murmuring of elm leaves, and 
the eye of the grave alumnus will brighten. 
For, he says, it is a breath from the old campus, 
and in it whispers the spirit of Nassau Hall. 



VIII. 

THE PRINCETON IDEA. 

In the eyes of many good people, Princeton 
stands for conservatism. It is doubtful whether 
most of them could tell just what this means, 
but on the whole there is a hazy idea that here 
things are not done just as the rest of the world 
does them. There is au impression that some- 
where on the campus is the spot where Jonathan 
Edwards " stamped his iron heel," and that this 
sacred indentation is the fetich of every true 
son of Nassau Hall. To a Princeton man who 
really knows his Alma Mater and appi'eciates 
her spirit, all this is sufficiently amusing. To 
one who is in the strong, full current of under- 
graduate life, or who has felt the ardent and 
progressive spirit which dominates the Faculty 
in the work of the various departments, or in 
the more general concerns of college policy, the 
charge that Princeton is not in sympathy with 
modern progress can only provoke a smile. 

And yet there is a sense in which Princeton 
179 



l80 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

does not object to the charge of conservatism. 
The College of New Jersey is peculiarly for- 
tunate in her traditions. She was founded and 
nurtured by men fired with the spirit which 
guided the two most important revolutions in the 
history of English-speaking peoples. The names 
of Princeton and Nassau Hall and the orange 
ribbon tell the story of her relation to the 
Kevolution of 1688. Her five signatures to the 
Declaration of Independence, her twenty-nine 
members of the Continental Congress, and the 
historic room in Old North where that body 
held session, show her connection with the 
Revolution of 1776. The passionate love of 
liberty, hatred of pretence, manly independence 
and broad democratic spirit which characterized 
the men who founded Princeton and guided her 
early course have been cherished by succeeding 
generations. Princeton is proud of her past, 
and is not anxious to part from it. She finds 
in it the greatest inspiration for the present and 
the brightest promise for the future. 

For Princeton is a college with a future. The 
atmosphere is full of it. Every one talks about 
the growth of the university, the development 
of the university spirit, the wonderful strides 
during the last twenty years and the anticipated 
advance of the next decade. The number of 



THE PRINCETON IDEA. 183 



students has about doubled in four years. The 
public college buildings, which have been 
completed oi' undertaken during the same period, 
equal the entire number in use when '91 were 
Freshmen. The Electrical and Chemical Schools 
have been added and furnished with splendidly 
equipped buildings. The Art School has been 
completed, and Dr. Prime has placed in it his 
magnificent collection. The Law School is 
talked of as a thing of the near future. Students 
and professors are caught by the enthusiasm of 
the movement. The latter are watching every 
opportunity to advance the college ; the former 
organize sectional clubs to work up Princeton 
sentiment, and go out every summer a band of 
propagandists to campaign among their friends. 
All this is purely spontaneous. A normal 
Princeton man has an intense patriotism and an 
unalterable conviction that his friend makes 
the mistake of his life if he goes elsewhere. The 
result is that the size of recent Freshmen classes 
has been practically limited only by the accom- 
modatioDS. Dormitory rooms are at a premium, 
and the town is full of students. It seems that 
the buildings cannot be put up fast enough to 
relieve the pressure. 

It is the combination of these two ideas which 
largely controls Princeton to-day — loyalty to 



1 84 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

tlie past and confidence in tlie future. They 
are not inharmonious ; it is the connection be- 
tween them which constitutes the conservatism 
of Nassau Hall. The future is not to be sepa- 
rated from the past, but built upon it ; a structure 
growing so rapidly must have a broad founda- 
tion. The methods and policy which have 
stood the test of years are not to be thrown 
away for a theory. Progress must come by 
modification and development rather than by 
radical innovation. The gradual expansion of 
the curriculum and the evolution of the elective 
systems are illustrations. But what is of more 
concern here is the Princeton Idea as it affects 
undergraduate life. We all know the Harvard 
man and the Yale man ; what are the influences 
which mould the Princeton man ? 

The first and most important is the social 
theory of the college. Here, most strikingly, 
one can observe the power and vitality of the 
traditional spirit. There is probably no other 
spot on the American continent quite so genu- 
inely democratic as the Princeton campus. It 
is not that invidious distinctions are overlooked 
or kept under ; they do not exist. The snob 
cannot survive in this atmosphere ; he is either 
laughed out of his snobbishness or laughed out 
of college. The instincts of a gentleman, and a 



THE PRINCETOX IDEA. \%J 



generous, manly .spirit, are the only credentiaLs. 
ISiO lines are dra\m, and every man iratemizea 
with his neighhior on the comer in front of 
Reunion. Here is the centre of our Republic. 
This space is to us what the Forum was to 
Rome. Is there some hitch in athletic matters i 
Has the Faculty become insulx>rdinate, or is a 
college election approaching? Immediately 
there is a gathering of the clans and opinions 
are advanced, supporte^^l, and attacked with mar- 
vellous eam^tness and force. For these con- 
gresses rain and snow have no terron* ; umbrellas 
and storm-coats are brought into service, and 
the session continued. Men move from one 
group to another to hear the various oracles 
and advocate their own views. Before very 
long there is a substantial agreement, or else 
party lines are drawn and vigorously sastained 
until a mass-meeting in the English room settles 
the matter. 

There is also an instinct for unity which 
manifests itself very strongly in the classes. 
The Freshmen are no sooner in college than the 
Seniors and Juniors besrin to mve them a ^reat 
deal of good advice. '^ Try to get acquainted 
Avith every man in your cla&s ; don't wait for an 
introduction — introduce yotirself as a classmate. 
Be very careful not to let your class fret split 



PRINCETON SKETCHES. 



up into factions." It might be thought that 
such a strong and self-conscious development of 
class feeling would break the college into four 
segments, but this is not the case. There is no 
axiom in Euclid more undisputed than this 
proposition : class spirit must yield to college 
spirit. The former is simply the regimental 
pride which does not affect the espi'it de corps 
of the brigade. Not many colleges could do 
what Princeton did recently, when Junior cap- 
tains maintained strict discipline over Seniors 
and Postgraduates on both of the 'Varsity 
teams. Yet here there was no difficulty what- 
ever ; the fitness of the men for their positions 
was recognized, and that was all-sufficient. 

It must be confessed that Princeton is pecul- 
iarly fortunate in her opportunities for cultivat- 
ing this broad college spirit. Here men are 
thrown together more than in any other institu- 
tion of the size. Yale once had a meagre fence, 
which she prized as the Florentines did their 
Piazze. But even then we pitied her because 
she did not have a campus. What would 
Princeton do without her scrub athletics ? Or 
if one is neither a ball-player nor a " lacrosse 
fiend," he can join one of the recumbent groups 
on the Front Campus, and smoke and chat and 
look up through the elms. Senior singing is 



THE PRINCETON IDEA. I9I 

preserved religiously. The PHncetonian always 
urges the Seniors to come out, aud the whole 
college gathers around the steps of Old North 
in the long summer twilight and listens to the 
familiar songs. This is a sacred rite — it means 
that Princeton men are one. The Senior chorus 
chants the hymn, and the listeners think of the 
time when they, too, will sit on those steps 
under the shadow of an approaching separation. 
Princeton's two old halls have survived from 
the pre-Revolutionary period. Their records 
go back to a decade before the Declaration of 
Independence, and among the charter members 
they can point to such names as James Madison 
and William Paterson. All the American col- 
leges at that early date had halls of a similar 
nature, but they have gradually disappeared 
before the rising tide of Greek-Letter Fraterni- 
ties. The American Whig and Cliosophic soci- 
eties have had many applications for charters 
from other institutions, but they have steadil); 
refused to join the fraternity movement. This, 
too, may be called conservatism, but it is a con- 
servatism which has given Princeton the best 
halls for oratory and debate in the country. 
Nearly every undergraduate is a member of 
one of them, and in each there is a select body 
of men who have come to Princeton largely on 



192 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

account of the opportunities which these halls 
offer, and who are training in parliamentary 
practice and public speaking under the influ- 
ence of the venerable traditions of their chosen 
society. Nowhere else is the science of debate 
so carefully studied, or oratory more sedulously 
practised, and the annual contests on commence- 
ment stage arouse as much enthusiasm among 
the halhnen as a championship game in New 
York. Princeton's literary history is young, 
but the long roll of her sons who have become 
honored in the public service testifies to the 
wisdom of the policy which has preserved the 
old halls. Law students have told me that in 
their professional schools Princeton men are 
distinguished by the ease and readiness with 
which they address an audience, and the fa- 
miliarity wnth which they use parliamentary 
forms. In their new and imposing marble 
buildings the societies have been true to their 
traditions. The club rooms are still subordi- 
nated to the library and the auditorium, and in 
their new homes we may expect Clio and Whig 
to train in the future, as in the past, men who 
will reflect honor alike on their college and 
their hall. 

Here, too, the devotion to a broad college 
spirit is strikingly shown. These two great 



THE PRINCETON IDEA. 1 95 

organizations fight vigorously enough for the 
supremacy, but their rivalry is confined to their 
own sphere. In athletics they are never heard 
of, and it is rare for them to enter class elec- 
tions. The result is a freedom from those 
cliques and jealousies which so often mar the 
peace of fraternity colleges. When Princeton 
men hear of wn'angles over athletic captains, or 
read of Senior classes giving up Class Day on 
account of fraternity feuds, they breathe a 
silent Te Deum for their own immunity. Fra- 
ternities were abolished in 1855, and now the 
undergraduates would not allow them to return. 
It is not because fraternities are objectionable 
in themselves, only they have no function here. 
In Cornell they aid the college materially by 
providing apartments for the men. lu metro- 
politan colleges like Columbia they furnisli a 
basis for social life ; but here we have our col- 
lege rooms, and prefer the broad, fraternal inter- 
course of dormitory and campus to the more 
limited friendship of the cliapter-house. It is 
true we have our social clubs, with their club- 
houses. In some respects they resemble the 
chapter-house, but only in a faint degree. The 
secrecy and the partisanship of the fraternity is 
wanting, and we may safely trust the genius of 
our institutions and the courtesy and public 



196 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

spirit of the club men to keep them from mak- 
ing any fracture in the unity of class or college. 
In 1746 the President of His Majesty's Coun- 
cil granted a charter to the founders of the Col- 
lege of New Jersey " for that the said petitioners 
have also expressed their earnest desire that 
those of every religious denomination may have 
equal liberty and advantage of education, any 
different sentiments in religion notv^ithstand- 
iug " ; and two years later the new Trustees ex- 
pressed the hope to Governor Belcher that their 
infant college might " prove a flourishing semi- 
nary of piety and good literature." Princeton 
has been true to her traditions as a religious 
college. The curriculum has always preserved 
a place for Bible study ; the philosojDhical chairs, 
while taking a liberal attitude towards the new 
evolutionary metaphysics, and recognizing its 
valuable contributions to the world's thought, 
have stood firmly on the fundamental principles 
of Christian theistic philosophy. Over half the 
members of the college are professing Christians, 
and the undergraduate life is dominated by 
Christian men. The Philadelphian Society was 
founded long before the college Y. M. C. A. 
came into existence, and fondly preserves the 
old name. It was in Princeton that the Stu- 
dents' Volunteer movement originated. Her 



THE PRINCETON IDEA. 199 

graduates hav^e beeu most active iu its expan- 
sion, and her undergraduates were the first to 
assume the support of a missionary iu the foreign 
field. 

While this is true, the spirit of the charter 
has been preserved in an utter absence of denomi- 
national feeling. The presence of the leading 
Presbyterian seminary in the same town has 
fostered a contrary belief, but nothing could be 
further from the truth. The first Board of 
Trustees under the charter was made up of 
Quakers, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. 
Every Christian body is largely represented, 
and the Episcopalian students have a flourish- 
ing society of over a hundred members in con- 
nection with the parish church. In so lai'ge a 
collegiate body there ai'e all kinds of men ; but 
even the " sport," if he does not practise all the 
virtues, has at least an honest respect for them, 
which distinguishes him from most of his genus, 
and gives a brighter hope for his future. 

If we were to attempt a picture of the ideal 
Princeton man, he would be first of all a gentle- 
man ; a man with a vigorous body, a true eye, 
a firm hand, and a sure foot. His spirit would 
be candid and prompt, his manner frank and 
genial, and over all would be shed the light of 
an exalted Christian character. This is the 



200 PRINCETON SKETCHES. 

ideal. Sometimes a man comes near realizing 
it, but however far short the rest may come, 
the ideal is there, and some of its elements are 
bound to penetrate the character of every man 
v^ho really breathes the spirit of Nassau Hall. 

Monsieur de Coubertin, in his tour of the 
American colleges in 1889, heard some harsh 
criticisms on Princeton from men of a rival 
institution. He criticises her in some things 
himself, and justly; but on his second visit, 
with a remarkable insight, he catches and ap- 
preciates her true meaning. " I saw," he says, 
" that these were the true Americans, the back- 
bone of the nation, the hope of the future ; that 
in them repose traditions already venerable, the 
ancient sense, the moral vigor ; that, finally, in 
them the present was closely linked to the past 
and perpetuated." 







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